"As supporters of women's rights worldwide, we are deeply disturbed by the statement made by a US delegate at the recent Preparatory Meeting for the forthcoming Fifth Asian and Pacific Population Conference that will take place 11-17 December 2002 in Bangkok. The US has threatened to withdraw from the Cairo Programme of Action of 1994 unless the words 'reproductive health services' and 'reproductive rights' are taken out or changed. This is a shocking development which is a threat to women's rights and women's health world wide. We demand that the Cairo Program of Action that has been endorsed by 179 nations be upheld. Reproductive health services and reproductive rights are essential human rights. Reproductive rights and reproductive health services are integral to the Cairo Program of Action. If the US breaks their commitment to the United Nations and to the world community, there will be disastrous consequences for women in all parts of the world who are in need of safe and effective contraceptive and abortion information and services. The position that the Bush administration has taken sets back the efforts of women's organisations by several decades and needs to be resisted. We urge you to make your own statement of protest and send it to the US administration, to the UN and to sign our petition on line at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/USantiWO/petition.html."
Governance and participation in health
Urban services specialists are coming to realise that sustainability of infrastructure interventions depends on community engagement in operation and maintenance (O&M). But what progress has been made in getting urban communities involved in the planning, construction, repair and maintenance of water supply and sewerage systems? Are projects demand-driven and are communities willing to pay to look after them?
Edited by: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Carlos Lopes and Khalid Malik, 2002.
The book contains a range of views from practitioners,academics and policy-makers about what has gone right with technical cooperation in recent years, what has gone wrong,and how to do it better and perhaps very differently.In so doing,it focuses on the questions of indigenous capacity, ownership, civic engagement and new possibilities for knowledge-sharing, for which the revolution in information and communications technologies offers ample opportunities.
We representatives of diverse civil society groups gathered in Johannesburg, affirm the value of the process of the Earth Summit, but we disassociate ourselves with deep concern from the outcomes of the world summit on Sustainable Development. We are alarmed that the governments of the world continue to show a tragic unwillingness to translate the RIO principles into concrete action and to display an appalling lack of determination to commit themselves to the objectives of Agenda 21. Instead they have shown an irresponsible subservience to corporate led globalisations and have made attempts to role back the commitments they reached in Rio.
Against the backdrop of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, over 70 African AIDS activists from 21 countries met in Cape Town from 22-24 August to inaugurate the Pan-African HIV/AIDS Treatment Access Movement (PHATAM). PHATAM's co-founders are two of the world's leading AIDS activists, Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa and Milly Katana, lobbying and advocacy officer of the Health Rights Action Group in Uganda and member of Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. PHATAM is dedicated to mobilising communities, political leaders, and all sectors of society to ensure access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, as a fundamental part of comprehensive care for all people with HIV/AIDS in Africa.
I Rusike, R Loewenson, CWGH, TARSC.
Equity in health is a long stated policy goal in Southern Africa, and some significant advances were made often through joint and complimentary action between the public health sector and communities. However, the health and health care gap between communities is still wide or widening, with differences based on gender, geographical area, income, access to public or private services, education and other factors. More recently,the combined impact of AIDS, structural adjustment, and real reductions in the health budget and in household incomes, has reversed many health gains. The quality of health care has declined and health workers and their clients have become demoralised. While these issues demand technical responses, reversing inequities depends in the main on social and political factors. This goes beyond the fact that social networking is important for service outreach and health seeking behaviour, and that social exclusion as a dimension of deprivation or poverty affects health outcomes. What we argue is that unless people affected by ill health have greater control over the resources needed for health care or to be healthy, equity goals will remain a dream. Equity without this socio-political dimension is not equity.
This was an NGO/CSO Regional Consultation on Governance in Africa, published in 1997. UNDP and ECA shared responsibility under the UNSSIA for improving coordination in the areas of capacity building, peace-building, conflict resolution and national reconciliation, and strengthening civil society for development, all linked to the governance agenda. Effective good governance and sustainable development is predicated on efficient public sector management systems and practices; establishment of appropriate legal frameworks that guarantee the rule of law; instalment of systems that ensure both economic and financial accountability; and ensure transparency. The consultation noted both the state and non-state sectors must reach a consensus on a common definition, priority agenda and practical modalities for popular participation in governance. It also noted that defining the nexus between popular participation, governance, peace, and development must invariably include the collaborative initiatives of various actors including ECA, UNDP, and the OAU on one hand and representative African governments, African NGOs and other civic organizations in the continent.
Swaziland's mayors are adopting a novel method in the fight against HIV/AIDS. They are reversing the usual top-down approach and are being led instead by their constituents, ordinary Swazis. "The voice of the people will determine how we will combat AIDS in the towns," explained chairman of the Ezulwini town board, Nokuthula Mthembu. The first woman to hold the top government post in her municipality, Mthembu is chair of the Executive Council of the Alliance of Mayors' Initiative for Community Action on AIDS at the Local Level (AMICAALL). "There has never been a project like this one," Mthembu told PlusNews. "But we absolutely must have an innovative approach to combat the deadly disease that is attacking our municipalities. We desperately need fresh ideas."
The Global Initiative on AIDS, Inc. and the Global Initiative on AIDS in Africa is calling on African journalists, writers, physicians, scientists, researchers, health care providers, grassroots activists and citizens in general who are involved on every level of the struggle against HIV/AIDS in African and throughout the Diaspora to submit articles, issues, opinions, research findings, and news about HIV/AIDS related matters. GIAA will publish "The Voice of the People," An International Journal Chronicling the Battle Against HIV/AIDS from the Perspective of Africans, African-Americans, African-Carribeans and Africans Around the World. Anyone interested in submitting articles and/or contributing to this effort should contact Angele Kwemo or Patricia Okolo.
Narayan, Deepa and Patti Petesch, 2002. Voices of the Poor: From Many Lands. New York, N.Y: Published for the World Bank, Oxford University Press. "From Many Lands," the third and last volume of the Voices of the Poor series, presents 14 country case studies in Africa (Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria), South and East Asia (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia), Europe and Central Asia (Bosnia, Bulgaria, Kyrgyz Republic, Russia), and Latin America and the Caribbean (Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Jamaica). Using participatory and qualitative research methods, the study presents the realities of poor people's lives directly through their own voices, with a concluding chapter on an empowering approach to development.