September letter 2026
At the beginning of this month, including the International Sexual Health-day we, my wife and colleague Elsa Almås and I, spent some exiting days at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. The occasion was the second meeting of the WSHA, meaning the World Sexual Health Assembly.
As many will know already, the first meeting gave birth to the Porto Proclamation, a historical document in the world of sexuality and gender. Now, in this second meeting, these issues were viewed from far more perspectives than we have ever seen.
More than 50% of the participants were from the Global South. A number of issues were on the tables, a number of participants shared their views and their wishes and needs for the populations they represented.
I came once again to think about the old Sanskrit proverb translated to English as follows:
Walk together, talk together of ye peoples of the earth, then and only then shall ye have peace.
The gap between the wishes and needs presented from the Global South and the Global North is dramatic, and it mirrors centuries of exploitation like the fact that today the nations from the Global South pay unprecedented amounts servicing their debts, mainly to the Global North. It stands out as post-colonialism colonialism!
In other words, there are solid grounds for controversies when an issue in the Global South is menstruation poverty, like lack of hygienic articles, while the North has focus on LGBTIQQA++, healthcare and acknowledgement of intersex, disabled and other marginalized groups.
We did walk, we did talk together, many major differences were displayed, but there were no controverses like blaming, naming and shaming. All is deeply needed.
Maybe many if not all, have the understanding that the need of one shall never disqualify the need of the other.
One absolutely common denominator for the whole of the meeting, was and is, the lack of organized healthcare, and the lack of sexual and sexological education and formalization of sexology in national health care and educational systems all over the world.
I came to sit in the group working with issues concerning innovative solutions in health systems and service delivery for sexual health.
With so many knowledgeable people from many corners of the world around the table, a lot came up, a lot was considered.
One issue is how can we “sell in sexual health” to policymakers, health bureaucrats, education professionals, and to those with vested interest on a global scale?
How can we make the influential leaders and the public all around see all the gains one can harvest from a population with better sexual health? All too many are living with heavy burdens to bear. When free of these burdens, with access to sexual well-being, I do believe that most people would see the resulting gain.
It is my sincere hope that we find it possible in the spirit of the 2nd WHSA to write a letter to all governments and all health care officials in the world, a letter free from blaming, shaming and naming that could inspire to innovative solutions in health systems and service delivery for sexual health.
In the deepest sense, this would support world peace.
Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad
EFS president