The Africa Mining Vision (AMV) signed in 2009 by African Ministers responsible for mineral resources development throughout the continent, and its accompanying policy framework, Minerals and Africa’s Development, provide a comprehensive strategy for mineral and other natural resource extraction to be used in manufacturing within the continent, rather than exported from Africa for the industrial development of other continents. The authors note that while comprehensive and bold, it does not incorporate the effects of such a development strategy on African women, even though extraction primarily affects rural populations and particularly women. They note the mounting drought in the continent and other consequences of climate change attributing it in part to excessive, worldwide extraction and combustion of minerals and fossil fuels. Showcasing seven community based studies in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper aims to fill this gap. The authors argue from the evidence in the case studies that mineral and oil-based development undervalues community wealth, food production systems and female labour. They make two policy recommendations: Firstly in order to enable meaningful public participation in the policy framework and vision provided in the AMV they call on the African Union to make public the number of displacements estimated for the African continent over the next half-century. They estimate that as many as 90 million displaced across the continent. Secondly, they call on African states to carry out national studies of the socioeconomic, environmental and thus human impacts of existing and abandoned mineral and oil-based development projects post-independence period, with active participation of women’s organisations, mining affected communities, policy think tanks, and academics in the fields of social and human development.
Values, Policies and Rights
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Standard is in its fifth version since the first principles were agreed in 2003. The principles on which the EITI is based state that the wealth from a country’s natural resources should benefit all its citizens and that this requires high standards of transparency and accountability. Revenue transparency remains a fundamental aspect of the EITI. The requirements follow the extractive value chain order and cover: first oversight by the multi-stakeholder group, then legal and institutional frameworks, exploration and production, revenue collection, revenue allocation, and finally social and economic spending and outcomes. It encourages countries to make use of existing reporting systems for EITI data collection and make the results transparent at source, with recommendations on the actions to take and the plans for taking them. It raises that the identity of the real owners – the ‘beneficial owners’ – of the companies that have obtained rights to extract oil, gas and minerals will have to be disclosed from 2020. It introduces a new validation system which aims to better recognise efforts to exceed the EITI requirements and sets out fairer consequences for countries that have not yet achieved compliance.
Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), United Nations Member States reported progress on the targets toward their general citizenry. This focus repeatedly excluded marginalised ethnic and linguistic minorities, including people of refugee backgrounds and other vulnerable non-nationals that resided within a States' borders. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to be applied to all, nationals and non-nationals alike. Global migration and its diffuse impact has intensified due to escalating conflicts and the growing violence in many countries. This massive migration and the thousands of refugees crossing borders in search for safety led to the creation of two-tiered, ad hoc, refugee health care systems that have added to the sidelining of non-nationals in reporting frameworks. The authors have identified four ways to promote the protection of vulnerable non-nationals' health and well-being in States' application of the post-2015 SDG framework: In setting their own post-2015 indicators states should explicitly identify vulnerable migrants, refugees, displaced persons and other marginalised groups in the content of such indicators. The authors’ recommend that communities, civil society and health justice advocates vigorously engage in country's formulation of post-2015 indicators and that the inclusion of non-nationals be anchored in the international human right to health, which in turn requires appropriate financing allocations as well as robust monitoring and evaluation processes that can hold technocratic decision-makers accountable for progress.
This report aims to raise awareness about the role that the reform of public health laws can play in advancing the right to health and in creating the conditions for people to live healthy lives. By encouraging a better understanding of how public health law can be used to improve the health of the population, the report aims to encourage and assist governments to reform their public health laws in order to advance the right to health. The report highlights important issues that may arise during the process of public health law reform. It provides guidance about issues and requirements to be addressed during the process of developing public health laws. It also includes case studies and examples of legislation from a variety of countries to illustrate effective law reform practices and some features of effective public health legislation.
In 2016, a hundred-strong group of young Port Elizabethans gathered at the Athenaeum in Central, for the city’s first YOUNGURBANISTS meeting. A historic building and national monument situated on the corner of Castle Hill and Belmont Terrace, the Athenaeum is not a typical art gallery. It has reinvented itself as a community hub for emerging creatives in Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounds. Set in the heart of the ‘old city,’ the Athenaeum sets out to be a tangible example of a reimagined, multi-use urban space – a fitting location for a Young Urbanists event. Speakers included Oyama Vanto, project leader in Development and Infrastructure for the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA), who introduced the audience to the MBDA’s goals of reversing urban decay and attracting people and businesses back into the inner city, and to its current projects: the resurrection of Zola Nqiri Square, the development of Vuyisile Mini Square and the extension of Route 67. Oyama’s passion for the democratization for city spaces resonated clearly in his talk, and he called out for a safer city for women and children as the starting point in enabling a more inclusive city. The audience were invited to share their vision for the future of our city, and to record it on a piece of paper and placed into a box. Young urbanists in attendance voiced their ideas and their concerns, calling for clear objectives through which they could move Nelson Mandela Bay forward as a model for future cities. One issue in particular was to identify the many pockets of multidisciplinary communities in our cities, with the hope of promoting synergy and fostering a participatory environment. Grand visions in place, the attendees are reported to now be reflecting on the ways that they can begin to take steps towards making such visions a reality, and dwell on the question of how, as young urbanists of PE, they can collectively propel a momentum shift and foster a culture of pride in their city.
This training manual is intended to enhance the role of civil society in promoting and protecting of the right to health under the Constitution. It will play an integral part in ensuring that civil society organisations have the knowledge and skills to hold duty bearers accountable to effective and efficient health service delivery. Schedule Four of the Kenya Constitution creates two levels of governance with distinct functions. The national government is mandated to formulate health policy and manage national referral health facilities while the county government is responsible for delivery of health services at the local level. The civil society groups that are working on health issues must therefore understands the roles and responsibilities of the different actors at both levels if they are to meaningfully engage in national and county processes. The manual is presented in four modules. The first module outlines the constitutional provisions on the right to health and what these provisions mean to the implementation of health as a right. The second module addresses the substance of the right to health including the international standards developed for the implementation of this right. The third module outlines the systems and structures of the devolved government and the role of the different state organs and agencies at national and county level in health service delivery. The fourth module then focuses on the role of the civil society in monitoring the implementation of the right to health. It also highlights the key issues concerning the right to health and outlines the specific responsibilities of civil society in holding each level of government to account for their mandates to deliver on the right to health.
Rates of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Africa (SA) are among the highest in the world. In societies where social ideals of masculinity encourage male dominance and control over women, gender power imbalances contribute to male perpetration and women’s vulnerability. The drivers that cause men to perpetrate GBV and those that lead to HIV overlap and interact in multiple and complex ways. Multiple risk and protective factors for GBV perpetration by males operate interdependently at a number of levels; at the individual level, these include chronic anxiety and depression, which have been shown to lead to risky sexual behaviours. This study examined psychosocial risk factors (symptoms of anxiety and depression) as well as protective factors (social support and self-esteem) as self-reported by a cohort of males in rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, SA; to determine whether there are differences in anxiety, depression, social support and self-esteem between perpetrators and non-perpetrators. A cross-sectional study using quasi-probability cluster sampling was done in 13 wards in Harry Gwala District, KZN. Participants were then randomly chosen from each ward proportionate to size. The participants were relatively young (median age 22 years); over half were schoolgoers, and 91.3% had never married. Over 43% of the sample reported clinical levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms on the Brief Symptom Inventory. Rates of GBV perpetration were 60.9%, 23.6% and 10.0% for psychological abuse, non-sexual physical violence and sexual violence, respectively. GBV perpetration was associated with higher depression, higher anxiety, lower self-esteem and lower social support. The authors propose that interventions to address GBV need to take modifiable individual-level factors into account.
This handbook is designed as a resource for providing up-to-date and practical guidance on national health planning and strategising for health. It establishes a set of best practices to support strategic plans for health and represents the wealth of experience accumulated by WHO on national health policies, strategies and plans (NHPSPs). WHO has been one of the leading organisations to support countries in the development of NHPSPs. The focus on improving plans has grown in recent years, in recognition of the benefits of anchoring a strong national health sector in a written vision based on participation, analysis, and evidence.
Recent legislative developments in Africa have focused international attention on the legal status of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the continent. Attempts by various African governments to revise or introduce new legislation on same-sex sexual conduct and marriage, and the response of the international community, has sparked extensive coverage of the associated political, social and cultural controversies. Away from the headlines are several African countries that have never criminalised same- sex sexual conduct and that are outliers to the apparent ‘trend’ of discriminatory legislation in the continent. One of these is Rwanda. Compared with the situation in neighbouring countries, state-sponsored homophobia appears negligible in Rwanda, and violent attacks are minimal. In the international arena, Rwanda has emerged as an unlikely champion for LGBT rights, and domestically has designated sexual orientation as a ‘private matter’. This study explores Rwanda’s relatively progressive position on LGBT-related issues and its implications for Rwandan civil society. It examines the strategies employed by national as well as international actors to advance LGBT rights and to address social and economic marginalisation. The study questions assumptions about the uniformity of the ‘African experience’ and seeks to enhance understanding of the nuance and diversity that exists both within and between countries on the continent.
The author claims that the battle for global sustainability will be won or lost in cities. Yet the UN’s Habitat III conference was argued in a 10-point manifesto that resulted from a convening of the Second World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments to miss the voices of the individuals and groups who actually run those cities. Mayors and other leaders from more than 500 cities formed a collective voice calling for “A Seat at the Global Table.” Their manifesto lays out why local governments need to be integrated into international talks traditionally reserved for national policymakers. With support from key figures such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the assembly pushed for a “paradigm shift in global governance” that would give local leaders more say in what strategies to implement and how. sign and adopt it. The UCLG named Parks Tau, the former mayor of Johannesburg, as their new head.