In 2007 a group of HIV-positive people in Machaze founded Tchitenderano (‘accord’ in the Ndau language) to campaign against stigma and discrimination in their district, where HIV prevalence is 16.7%, slightly higher than the national average of 16%. So far the group has helped more than 3,000 people. Tchitenderano has 25 activists who hold lectures at various public institutions to educate people about HIV and other sexual and reproductive health issues. They also visit health facilities to encourage patients to adhere to their antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, and provide home-based care. Samuel Doris Campira, president of the organisation, said they were slowly helping to free Machaze district of discrimination and stigma. ‘There were people who would spit at us when they walked by where we were meeting, but today there are families with HIV-positive individuals at home who seek us out to become better informed,’ he said. ‘The stigma is still very strong, despite the legislation and the campaigns,’ he noted, but with time, information and patience, he believed communities would eventually change their attitudes.
Governance and participation in health
Effective management of public health emergencies demands open and transparent public communication. The rationale for transparency has public health, strategic and ethical dimensions. Despite this, government authorities often fail to demonstrate transparency. A key step in bridging the gap between the rhetoric and reality is to define and codify transparency to put in place practical mechanisms to encourage open public health communication for emergencies. The authors demonstrate this approach using the example of the development and implementation process of a public health emergency information policy.
At their meeting in Sirte, Libya, held from 1–3 July, nearly half of the 53 African Union (AU) heads of state and government reached consensus to establish the African Union Authority to replace the African Union Commission. Libyan Leader Mouamar Kadhafi, supported by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade, argued to speed up continental integration but others, notably Nigeria and Tanzania, argued against it. Commenting on the consensus reached, Jean-Marie Ehouzou, the Benin Foreign Minister noted, ‘African leaders are in agreement with ceding a little of their sovereignty to the AU Authority’. To enter into force, the AU Authority must be approved by the Parliaments of all AU countries. African leaders also discussed the integration of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) into the organs of the AU and adopted a resolution ending cooperation with the International Criminal Court in the Hague. They also decided to reinforce agriculture and food security and to enlarge the powers of the AU Commission into foreign, trade and defence areas.
EuropeAid organised a consultation meeting in June on the second Strategy Paper of the 2007–2013 European Union (EU) programme, the European Partnership for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR). Currently in draft form, this paper will provide the basis for European Community (EC) multi-annual programming and annual action programmes for the period 2011–2013. The European Commission (EC) identified specific changes in the new strategy as including: a stronger emphasis on difficult countries as apposed to difficult situations; a higher number of countries eligible for increased support; greater decentralisation of decision-making to EC delegations; a greater focus on links between thematic and geographical instruments; and more clarity on EC human rights priorities and their link to political dialogue. The Commission noted, however, that it does not plan to provide details on the draft EIDHR strategy ahead of its publication and, while written civil society submissions are welcome, only minor changes would be made at this stage since the EC considered it premature to undertake an evaluation of the programme.
The author, on behalf of CIVICUS, expresses deep concerned about certain restrictive aspects of the Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) Bill of 2009, which the Zambian government is planning to introduce in Parliament. Some of the concerns raised by civil society in the 2007 version of the Bill have been addressed, but key provisions of the Bill restrict the independence of NGOs and subject them to excessive and unwarranted controls which serve to impede rather than enable the freedom of association guaranteed by the Constitution of Zambia, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, to which Zambia is a party. If passed in its present form, the Bill will seriously restrict the activities of NGOs. Key areas of concern include problematic registration procedures, excessive government control and unnecessary curbs on independence through forced self-regulation and peer monitoring.
This study attempts to distil lessons learned by a handful of African civil society coalitions on the dynamics of demanding improved governance of governments that are often averse to governance reform. The project admittedly tackles an ambitiously formidable subject, largely due to the dearth of compelling, contemporary African examples of civil society leading noteworthy policy or social change. Governance and policy reform in several African countries continues to be driven by African governments, through initiatives such as the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), as the South African Institute of International Affairs’ (SAIIA) six years of research into the APRM suggests. As such, the study broaches a subject starved of compelling material. However, it creates an accessible set of lessons from civil society activists, academics, diplomats, representatives of donor agencies and civil society experts that have played leading roles in a few – but notable – episodes of civil society-led policy reform.
Climate change and the current global economic crisis bring an unprecedented opportunity to transform global governance, which must start giving priority to human development and citizen engagement, civil society organisations said at the launch of Platform HD2010 in New York on 5 June, a partnership that will include civil society in addressing the current global crises in the poorest countries. The partnership’s recommendations will contribute to the 20-year review of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report. Civil society representatives have called on the UNDP to create and expand opportunities for citizen engagement in development initiatives and to work together in addressing the concerns of the poor, who have been the hardest hit by the current economic and climate crises. The partnership will also contribute to the ten-year review of the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals, both of which are taking place next year.
Non-state actors (NSAs) are systematically neglected in European Union (EU) development assistance programmes, according to this report. It identifies EU practices that are violating its European Consensus on Development policy statement. It found that, despite the European Community’s (EC’s) attempts, NSAs' involvement has been limited and falls short of the sustained and structured dialogue envisaged by the EU legislation and the Commission’s own guidelines. The EC often does not commit enough time and resources to ensure that its delegations involve relevant NSAs throughout the whole process. EC's development aid programmes are reported to often engage NSAs solely as service providers or short-term consultants, without the follow-up and impact needed for sustainability and effectiveness.
Thirty-two delegates participated in the global workshop that marked the first research phase of the Global Development Network’s (GDN’s) UK Department for International Development-funded project, ‘Strengthening Institutions to Improve Public Expenditure Accountability’, in Washington DC on 18–20 May. For the first year of the project, partners will conduct programme budget and benefit incidence analysis in the three programme sectors: education, health and water. Next year, partners will receive technical training on the subsequent programme analytical activity – cost effective analysis – and start implementing their communication plans in order to inform policymakers on their findings and budget reform proposals. Participating in the meeting were fifteen partner institutions, including from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Global Development Network (GDN) and the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) jointly organised a workshop for their United Nations Development Programme-funded project in Cape Town, South Africa, on 7–8 May 2009: Institutional Capacity Strengthening of African Public Policy Institutes to Support Inclusive Growth and the Millennium Development Goals. This was the third event for the project, following the workshop in Kuwait (February 2009) and the initial planning meeting held in Accra (June 2008). The objective of the project is to provide support to enhance knowledge management capacity for African Policy Research Institutes and networks with a particular focus on tackling the issues of poverty and hunger within the global Millennium Development Goals framework. It will seek to strengthen multi-disciplinary research capacity on poverty analysis and contribute to bridging the gap between research and policy on poverty reduction and sustainable development. Papers from the workshop are expected to be finalised by the end of July 2009. Policy briefs, based on the final papers, will be produced by the relevant institutions. The group also chalked out a dissemination strategy for the project. A concluding workshop has been scheduled for Kenya, in September 2009.