1. AFRICA MUST ACT WITH GREATER URGENCY ON HIV/AIDS AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH
Statement by CSOs at the Fourth Ordinary African Union Summit of the Heads of States, 24-31st January 2005, Abuja, Nigeria
Signed by the African Network for the Campaign on Education for All (ANCEFA), African Womens Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (ACDHR), Center for Democracy and Development (CDD),
Pan African Movement (PAM), Pan African Development Education and Advocacy Programme(PADEAP), West African Students Union (WASU), Womens Rights Advancement and Protection Alternatives (WRAPA), Development Network of Indigenous Voluntary Agencies (DENIVA), Fahamu, ActionAid International, Oxfam GB
Summary
The fourth Ordinary African Union Summit of the Heads of States takes place at a time when the consequences of poorly financed and collapsing public health services across the continent can only be described as a public health emergency. Returning to Abuja where four years ago they committed themselves to accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases, it is clear that key obstacles continue to prevent hundreds of millions of Africans from realising the right to health. African Governments and the African Union must reinvigorate the fight against the violation of HIV/AIDS and health related rights.
Recommendations
- African Governments must commit to increasing GDP allocation for health by three per cent each year in order to reach the 2001 Abuja Summit commitments of 15%.
- African government should ensure that treatment of AIDS and infectious diseases is provided free, reaches vulnerable groups and in an accountable manner.
- African Governments, who have to yet ratify the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women, must do so. It is a major instrument in securing the right to health for Africa’s women and girls.
- The African Union Commission must lead on lobbying the G8 in 2005 for debt cancellation and measures from industrialised countries to compensate for the brain drain of African health workers.
- The African Union Commission must lead on lobbying the G8 in 2005 for debt cancellation and securing measures from industrialised countries to compensate for the brain drain of African health workers.
- African Governments must mandate the African Union Commission to champion for enabling laws and policies in member states and a coordinated global advocacy approach towards the WTO Hong Kong Inter-ministerial in December 2005.
Situational analysis
Across our continent the health status of women remains precarious and in many instances, worsening, not only because of HIV but also because of the many unacceptable inequalities that exist in women’s health, the limited choices that are made available to women and finally, the lack of accountability for their health.
- Pascal Mocumbi, Prime Minister, Mozambique, 2003.
The majority of Africa’s 800 million citizens continue to remain locked out of health facilities across the continent. By the time the Summit opens, Africa will have lost 20 million people to the plague of AIDS. Behind them, they would have left 12 million orphans to fend for themselves. While our leaders meet, outside the doors of the Abuja International Conference Centre, 80% of the 40 million people currently living with HIV/AIDs across the world will be struggling to fight a debilitating disease that in some parts of the industrialised world is no longer a killer disease. 55% of these will be women.
By the time the Summit opens on the 24th January, 90 million African women and girls will have been forcibly circumcised or had their genitals mutilated. Between the opening and the closing Summit ceremonies, 77,000 women and girls will have undergone unsafe abortions in countries where restrictive abortion policies ensure that no standards can be maintained or monitored. As a result of this and other factors, a staggering 47/48 sub-Saharan African countries will not meet the goal of reducing maternal mortality and one in ten babies will not survive child birth due to poor and inadequate health infrastructure in Africa.
Yet, this is sadly no longer news in a continent numbed by the domestic stories of neglect, blocked access to life-saving drugs and poverty. What could be news is the scaling up of international and African public resources into expanding access to health-care services.
Expand public financing for health and education
When African Heads of States met in Abuja in April 2001, they correctly declared HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), and other related infectious diseases (ORID) as a state of emergency. Recalling and reaffirming their commitment to all relevant decisions, declarations and resolutions in the area of health and development and on HIV/AIDS, particularly the "Lomé Declaration on HIV/AIDS in Africa" (July 2000) and the "Decision on the adoption of the International Partnership against HIV/AIDS" (Algiers 1999) they stated;
“WE COMMIT OURSELVES to take all necessary measures to ensure that the needed resources are made available from all sources and that they are efficiently and effectively utilized. In addition, WE PLEDGE to set a target of allocating at least 15% of our annual budget to the improvement of the health sector.”
Now known as the “Abuja 15% commitment” this target was seen as a critical contribution to the fight against HIVAIDS and other diseases. Shockingly, despite this public commitment, four years on many countries continue to spend less than 10% of the revenue on health. African Governments must commit in this Summit to increasing GDP allocation for health by three per cent each year in order to reach the 2001 Abuja Summit commitments of 15%.
New research published by the Global Campaign for Education and endorsed by UNAIDS, shows that a complete primary education makes a strong and direct impact on HIV infection rates, especially among young women. Girls with a complete primary education are 2.2 times less likely to contract HIV than those with some or no primary education. Education equips young people to understand and apply facts and gives them the status, clout and confidence to avoid unsafe and exploitative relationships. Investing in free primary education for everyone but especially for girls, is one of the most effective and urgently needed measures to fight the epidemic. Investing in secondary education would bring additional benefits. Consequently, the AU needs to give priority to free, universal and compulsory basic education with gender equity, both in its own strategies for development and poverty reduction, as well as in its dialogue with forums such as the G8.
Debt cancellation is pre-requisite for progress
The heavy external debt burden …continues to mortgage African economies and cast a shadow over our People’s’ future. To date, the proposed remedies are ad hoc.
- Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity, July 2002
A comprehensive AIDS plan for Africa would cost US$10 billion per year, yet African nations spend one and a half times this amount in debt servicing. In many countries, more is spent on debt servicing than on education and health or is received in aid grants and foreign direct investment. For the same money, the global fund against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis could stop these diseases and provide Anti-Retrovirals (ARVs) for the three million people living with HIV in all developing countries not just Africa.
This absurdity can only be seen from the experience of one country. Tanzania for instance, currently pays US$39 million dollars per annum in debt servicing while receiving only US$27 million in aid. It is revealing to recall that after the second world war, Germany was considered to be harshly penalised for having reparations set at 7% of its exports, yet in 2005 Tanzania is supposed to “adjust” and grow with debt servicing set at 60% of its exports.
Yet, this Summit occurs at a time when momentum has built once more around the necessity for debt cancellation. Several G8 countries have bi-laterally cancelled debts owed by African countries. In February 2005, the G7 Finance Ministers will consider proposals to underwrite debt cancellation by committing additional bi-lateral financing or by re-valuing IMF gold reserves. The benefits of this would be immense. Debt cancellation would enable countries like Ethiopia to expand access by doubling its expenditure on health and thus reaching beyond the 60% who are currently reached by health services.
There is precedence in Africa for successful re-channeling of debt relief into basic social services. At least six countries in Africa offer insight into the possibilities debt cancellation could create. In Benin for example, 54% of HIPIC relief monies was channeled into improving health programmes by recruiting health staff for rural clinics, implementing HIV/AIDS and anti-malarial programmes and improving access to safe water and increasing immunisation. Malawi has been able to allocate a 30% cut in debt servicing per year to enhance their HIV/AIDs health care system. US$1.3 million of debt relief money has been critical to resourcing Uganda’s National HIV/AIDS plan. Cameroon was able to launch a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategic plan funded to the tune of US$114 million with help from debt savings. In Niger, a special programme that focuses on rural education, health, food security and water systems has been fully financed through HIPC. This has mainly been used so far in building classrooms and rural clinics. In Burkina Faso, HIPC relief has been spent on health (33%), education (39%) and rural roads (28%).
As Jubilee Zambia coordinator Teza Nchinga notes, "Respect for the basic human rights (food, health care and education) of millions of Zambians should take priority over repayment of debts to comparatively wealthy creditors especially when capital on these debts has already been paid a number of times over." The African Union Commission must lead on behalf of African countries by aggressively demanding debt cancellation from the G8 in 2005. African Governments on the other hand, must follow the example of these six countries who have had re-channeled monies freed up from debt relief into strengthening health systems including the retention of health workers.
Industrialised countries must deliver on their aid commitments
Currently, despite the increases pledged in the UN Financing For Development Conference in Monterrey, rich countries spend half of the foreign assistance they did in 1960. If they were to meet the OECD targets of 0.7% of their GNP this would increase aid levels from US$70 billion to US$190 billion dollars. Yet, only the UK and Spain have set dates to meet these targets. 12 other countries are far from this and do not seem to be in a hurry.
Compared to expenditure on defense or domestic agricultural subsidies, this would be a very small amount. Looked at in terms of the cost to individual taxpayers, it would cost an additional US$80 dollars per person per year or put more simply, the average price of one cup of coffee a week.
G8 countries continue to prioritise aid to countries where they have geo-political interests rather than fighting poverty. Over 2004, America set aside US$ 65 billion dollars for fighting the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. This could have financed the exact annual budget deficit for the entire continent of Africa. Put another way, six months of US funding for the war in Iraq (US$ four billion) could have met the annual budget deficit for the global fund against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Yet increasing aid is only one measure, improving its quality is another. For instance, nearly 30% of aid is tied to goods and services from donor countries. In the case of the US, this figure is as high as 70%.
The quality of foreign assistance also continues to be undermined by IMF and World Bank fiscal and macro-economic models, which act to constrain expenditure on basic social services. In a study of twenty Poverty Reduction Strategies, sixteen were found to contain fiscal targets for inflation and the budgetary envelope that had not been subjected to public discussion. They were targets that had been established by the World Bank or the IMF. Last year for instance, Ethiopian and Tanzanian Governments will have to meet 85 and 78 policy conditions respectively.
The AU clearly sees itself providing leadership, monitoring states performance and accountability, advocacy with states and beyond, setting up standards, harnessing new continental initiatives, and as a knowledge hub. This clear emphasis on harmonising the plethora of new initiatives and monies that are offered for flooding Africa and which are, in many cases, confusing national plans and programmes, is welcome.
To this end, the AU must challenge the proliferation of uncoordinated initiatives such as the US PEPFAR Presidential Initiative. Bilateral initiatives such as PEPFAR may reinforce donor-driven approaches, increase the administrative burdens of recipient countries and drain resources away from existing, experienced, multilateral initiatives. Such initiatives create parallel systems where the national government using inexpensive generic fixed dose combinations and that of PEPFAR using expensive brand names. This leads to confusion of both patients and health providers.
The African Union must take a more vigorous lead in engaging the international community to deliver the Monterrey promises and improve the volume and quality of foreign assistance to Africa. It is vital that donors’ initiatives and programmes should implement nationally defined policies especially regarding access to medicines.
Improving Access to Care and Support
The major challenge facing the people living with AIDS and people affected by AIDS is the issue of access to treatment and care. The World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2003 came up with an initiative to treat three million people by 2005. This is believed to be approximately half of the estimated six million people in dire need of antiretroviral therapy. This is the popular 3 by 5.
Despite the fact that some African governments have subsidized distribution programmes, less than 1% of Africans in need of ARV treatment had access to ARVs, compared to 85% in developed countries in 2004. South Africa has committed to providing free treatment to 53,000 people by March 2004. This is a fraction of South Africa's HIV positive population, estimated to be over five million. The Nigerian government began a treatment programme to provide ARVs for 10,000 people in November 2002. At a conservatively estimated number of 3 million people living with HIV&AIDS in Nigeria in 2004, this is quite clearly inadequate.
Access to ARVs is also determined by power within and between households. Findings from CSO participatory research studies in Zambia and Nigeria suggest that intra-household power relations conspire to constrain women’s access to ARVs. Women in Zambia have a disproportionate access to ARVs (30%) despite comprising of 50% of the population. In January 2004, less than 30% of people who had access to ARVs were women in Zambia. In many families who cannot afford to have more than one person on ARV, it is the male head of household that is chosen. At another level, scanty or total ignorance of prevalent diseases, the weak bargaining position of women and the pervasive cultural endorsement of male liberty to have free and multiple sexual relationships (in and out of marriage) has escalated the distributive impact of STDs and led to the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS across communities all over Africa.
In many countries across Africa the right to health is not enshrined in either the constitution or laws. It is in this context that the African Union Protocol on Women’s Rights and in particular the provisions in articles 14 and 15 significantly contribute to grounding the obligations of Governments. Yet, despite encouragement by the African Union Commission under the leadership of President Konare and civil society campaigning, only seven Governments have ratified the Protocol, a further 33 have signed but not ratified. To this end, African Governments who have not yet done so must re-commit to ratify with urgency, the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women, as a major instrument in securing the right to health for Africa’s women and girls.
Class equities also affect the distribution of ARVs. Interviewed recently, a 29 year old father of three kids in Nigeria said;
“The ARV that come to the center are not given to those of us who have come out to declare our status, but to those BIG men who bribe their way through and we are left to suffer and scout round for the drug. “
Attempts to bring down the costs of ARVs are obviously the way forward. In Nigeria, Malawi and Zimbabwe, tariffs on essential drugs have been removed. The Governments of Zambia and Mozambique have issued compulsory licensing for ARVs for their treatment programmes. Zimbabwe has also allocated precious foreign currency to a local company to manufacture generic ARVs, and is currently running trials on AZT at two of its largest hospitals. However, Zimbabwe’s lack of foreign currency has made it difficult to secure an adequate supply of drugs. In Kenya and Malawi also many public hospitals have no drugs for treatment of HIV/AIDS-related infections.
Access to essential medicines rests on African countries being able to domestically produce or source cheap drugs from southern based generic drugs industries. The AU should consider initiating dialogue with WHO, UNCTAD and the EC to explore the feasibility of establishing African centers of excellence in the producing of high quality local production of medicine especially ARVs. African states should be encouraged to influence both public and private health service providers to dispel misinformation about generic drugs being inferior to brand products, eliminate the costs of ARVs to users and actively target the rural poor with special emphasis on gender equity. Key to this will be the replication of policies that cut taxes and tariffs and promote price regulation to countries that have not already done so.
We welcome existing plans for a continental conference on the rights of people with HIV/AIDS to raise the profile of rights abuses and to chart a new chapter in the evolution of national laws and standards consistent with the spirit of the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights. We call on the AU Commission to extend an invitation to People with AIDS organizations and networks across the continent to help design this process.
African Governments must mandate the African Union Commission to champion for enabling laws and policies in member states and a coordinated global advocacy approach towards the WTO Hong Kong Inter-ministerial in December 2005. The AU must ensure that new trade agreements especially Trade Related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), bilateral and regional trade agreements do not undermine access to medicines in Africa.
The absence of effective conditions to fight HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and polio conditions and poor remuneration of African health workers has led to an exodus of trained health personnel. Calculating the cost of training, every doctor that leaves the continent costs Africa US$60,000. This results in a staggering subsidy to G8 countries of US$500 million every year just for health personnel.
To increase access to medicines African governments should redirect aid and debt money towards investing in basic health services including retention of health workers. Donors’ initiatives should follow national medicines policies especially using inexpensive generic fixed dose combinations. The AU should advocate with states, donors and the pharmaceutical industry to decrease the prices of second line treatment for HIV.
Conclusions
As African Governments meet once again in Abuja, they must embrace the opportunity of an invigorated African Union Commission to turn words into further deeds and directly confront the state of emergency. The temptation to simply re-affirm the 2001 Abuja Declaration must be avoided in order for the costs of this Summit to be justified. Increasing domestic resourcing, improving the quality of health programmes particularly to rural communities and delivery on debt cancellation are key to preventing hundreds of millions of Africans from being denied the right to health.
Recommendations
- African Governments must commit to increasing GDP allocation for health by three per cent each year in order to reach the 2001 Abuja Summit commitments of 15%.
- African government should ensure that treatment of AIDS and infectious diseases is provided free, reaches vulnerable groups and in an accountable manner.
- African Governments, who have yet to ratify the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women, must do so. It is a major instrument in securing the right to health for Africa’s women and girls.
- The African Union Commission must lead on lobbying the G8 in 2005 for debt cancellation and measures from industrialised countries to compensate for the brain drain of African health workers and stop recruiting more workers.
- African Governments must prioritise monies saved by debt relief for strengthening health systems that ensure the retention of health workers.
- African Governments must mandate the African Union Commission to champion for enabling laws and policies in member states and a coordinated global advocacy approach towards the WTO Hong Kong Inter-ministerial in December 2005.
* Useful Reading Materials
- African Union, Report of the African Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and other related infectious diseases. Abuja Nigeria, April 2004
- African Union, HIV/AIDS Strategy 2005-2007
- ActionAid International, Responding to HIV/AIDS in Africa, a comparative analysis of responses to the Abuja Declaration in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria & Zimbabwe, June 2004
- ActionAid International, 3 by 5: Ensuring HIV/AIDS Care for All. June 2004
- Fahamu/SOAWR, Pambazuka News 190: Special Issue on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa: A pre-condition for health & food security, January 2005
- Oxfam International, Paying the Price, January 2005
2. SUMMARY OF DECISIONS OF THE AFRICAN UNION FOURTH ORDINARY SUMMIT, ABUJA, NIGERIA JANUARY 2005
Compiled By: Eve Odete, Pan Africa Policy Officer, Oxfam GB
Summary of Decisions of the African Union Fourth Ordinary Summit, Abuja, Nigeria Jan 2005
Key Meetings
Assembly of the African Union, Fourth Ordinary Session
30-31 January 2005
Assembly /AU/Dec.55-72 (IV)
Assembly/ AU/ Dec. 1-2 (IV)
Decisions and Declarations
Executive Council
Sixth Ordinary Session, 24-28 January 2005
EX. CL/Dec. 165-191 (VI)
Decisions
EX. CL//Rapt/ Rpt (VI)
Rapporteur’s Report of the Sixth Ordinary Session
Of the Executive Council
Permanent Representatives Committee
Ninth Ordinary Session
PRC/Rpt (1X)
Report of the Ninth Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives’ Committee
Rationale for this compilation and the policy cycle it documents
This summary has been prepared for policy analysts working for Oxfam, international, continental and regional networks and allies to inform us on the key deliberations and decisions of the most important decision-making organ of the African Union. It captures key decisions, upcoming dates and opportunities for continental policy development.
The sequence of the Summits is as follows; one week of intense meetings starting with the Permanent Representatives Council (Addis based Ambassadors), Council of Ministers (National Ministers) and the Assembly itself (Heads of States). While the Assembly is the supreme decision making body, the discussions from Ambassador level are important to understand the issues being prioritized and deliberated. Opportunities for policy influencing decrease as the meetings go on. Indeed, even lobbying space becomes more difficult to secure particularly with the Commissioners.
1. Health and HIV/AIDS
Permanent Representatives Committee
Ninth Ordinary Session
PRC/Rpt (1X)
On HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other related infectious diseases, the PRC observed;
The need for Africa to take the lead in Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) negotiations to promote access to affordable generic drugs - Africa has to plan properly for dialogue at TRIPs negotiations and other fora;
Assembly of the Africa Union
Fourth Ordinary Session
Decisions and Declarations
Assembly/ AU /Dec. 55 (1V)
CALLS UPON the international community, especially the rich industrialized countries,
to fully fund the Global Fund in line with previous commitments made in this regard, and taking into account the magnitude of the health emergency presented by these diseases in Africa;
URGES Member States to:
Take the lead in TRIPs negotiations and in implementing measures identified for promoting access to affordable generic drugs;
Ensure that every child receives polio immunization in 2005;
Prepare inter-ministerial costed development and deployment plans to address the Human Resources for Health crisis;
Prepare health literacy strategies to achieve an energized continent-wide health promotion endeavour;
URGES Member States to intensify efforts towards more effective and well-coordinated implementation of national programmes to promote health systems development as well as improve access to prevention, treatment, care and support; along the “Three ones initiative”; the “3 by 5 Strategy” and Global “Child Survival Partnership”;
RESOLVES to take all the necessary measures to produce with the support of the international community, quality generic drugs in Africa, supporting industrial development and making full use of the flexibility in international trade law and; REQUESTS the AU Commission within the framework of NEPAD to lead the development of a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa;
CALLS UPON the International Community to match the US$19 billion gap in health financing which the WHO has determined that Africa is not in a position to self finance;
2. Trade
Permanent Representatives Committee
Ninth Ordinary Session
PRC/Rpt (1X)
On on-going WTO negotiations the Commissioner for Trade and Industry
highlighted the need for Africa to send a strong political message to the international community to find a solution to the cotton initiative which affects more than 10 million African producers living below the poverty line. She further pointed out the issue of the unfair behaviour of the Northern countries with regard to agricultural subsidies and the need to lay emphasis in the political message on the importance for Africa to meet food security objectives, rural development and poverty reduction. In conclusion, she stressed the need for the African Group to maintain solidarity and unity with the G90 on issues of substance within the WTO.
The PRC recognized the importance of the WTO negotiations for the socio-economic development of Africa and emphasized the need for capacity building in Member States and RECs and for better coordination of efforts among New York, Geneva, Brussels, African Groups and the AU Commission in Addis Ababa. It agreed with the recommendation for a fast-track approach to the cotton issue while emphasizing the need to come up with a common position on cotton, springing from the outcome of the recently held Bamako meeting. It further called for the document to be enriched with more information on the roadmaps finalized in Geneva and the reaction of the RECs on the issue as well as with the outcome of the Bamako meeting on cotton. It highlighted the importance of coming out with concrete proposals on the issue of Special and Differential Treatment; on the possibility for African countries to have access to required drugs for public health inclusion in national legislations as decided by the WTO Council. The PRC also emphasized the need to pursue the proposal for support to cotton producers in their exports and for the creation of a fund to compensate losses. In this regard, the PRC also called for other commodities to be part of the list of tradable goods for negotiations at the WTO.
It also called for a meeting on services in order to deal with African concerns in that sector. It recommended that, in addition to other partners, the expertise of ECA should be tapped for capacity building purposes. The PRC recommended that the AU Commission take the necessary measures to implement the proposal to send a strong political message to the international community to fast track negotiations on the cotton issue.
On Negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreements:
The Commissioner recalled the provisions of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) which aim at making EPAs, instruments for the promotion of rapid and sustainable development, the eradication of poverty and the smooth and gradual integration of Africa into the global economy. She quoted in particular Article 37.3 which provides for the strengthening of capacity in the public and private sector during the preparatory phase through measures that increase competitiveness and support regional integration initiatives such as assistance to budgetary adjustment and reform, infrastructure development and investment promotion. She added that the first phase of negotiations was not sanctioned by a formal agreement and that all 48 ACP African countries had embarked on the second phase within four groupings without any country expressing desire to remain outside the process. She then drew the attention of the Committee on the major challenges involved in the negotiations for African countries as raised by the RECs during the first meeting of the coordination mechanism between the AU and the RECs. These are: (i) geographical configuration of the EPAs, (ii) the issue of compatibility between WTO and EPA Rules; (iii) the reciprocal relationship between the EU and ACP countries given the gap between their levels of development, (iv) the imbalance in the present multilateral trading system, (v) the heavy procedures of access to EDF resources and additional resources to African countries to face direct and indirect adjustment costs.
She stressed the fact that, although EPAs were about to enter into force in three years’ time, the provisions of Article 37.3 were still not implemented. In this regard, she highlighted the need for RECs to remain united and proposed that Council calls on the EU to allow the AU Commission as an integration Organisation to access EDF resources for the implementation of the NEPAD programme.
The PRC expressed concern about the geographical configuration for the negotiation of EPAs which does not coincide with the RECs as organised within the AU. It called for the AU to develop capacity for the coordination of EPA negotiations to ensure that Africa speaks with one voice although EPAs divide Africa into RECs/negotiating groups and that the North African countries are part of the Barcelona process.
On the issue of resources, the PRC pointed out that EU resources were categorised into programmable and non-programmable resources and that the AU not being a party to the CPA was not eligible under the first category but should be able to access the non-programmable resources. In conclusion, the PRC stressed the need for African countries to build capacity not only for market access but above all in order to face supply-side constraints so that they can make good use of whatever agreement they will enter into in 2007.
The Executive Council
Sixth Ordinary Session
Decisions
Doc. EX.CL/151 (VI)
Decision on WTO negotiations
RECALLS the Doha Ministerial Declaration in which the international community undertook to place the needs and interests of developing countries at the heart of the WTO Work Programme;
COMMENDS the African Group for its efforts aimed at bringing to the Doha Work Programme back on track and for remaining engaged in the WTO negotiations in accordance with the technical guidance and policy framework provided under the Kigali Declaration and Consensus on the post-Cancun Doha Work Programme ;
RECALLS ALSO the outcome of the Special WTO General Council session held in Geneva from 27 July to 1 August 2004;
TAKES NOTE of the July Package adopted by the WTO General Council on 1st August 2001;
RECOMMENDS the speedy adoption of an approach to resolve the cotton issue based on the results of the meeting held in Bamako from 12 to 13 January 2005;
ALSO RECOMMENDS the early consideration of the issue of agricultural subsidies and the adoption of an Africa Common Position on commodities in general;
CALLS UPON the African Group in Geneva to continue to engage fully and actively in the negotiations with a view to achieving a pro-development outcome from the Doha Round;
ALSO CALLS UPON the same to finalise the Tunis roadmap and Work Plan in order to engage collaborative research and capacity building efforts from regional and international organizations on specific areas to enable Africa to positively contribute to the modalities stage of the negotiations leading up to the 6th Session of the WTO Ministerial Conference;
URGES Member States to continue to coordinate efforts both at the technical and political levels with like-minded groups, in particular, the G90;
WELCOMES Egypt’s invitation for a meeting to be held in Cairo, in May 2005, to discuss ways to deal with the challenges facing cotton producing countries in Africa;
REQUESTS the Commission to convene a Ministers of Trade meeting to chart the way forward as far as Africa’s Agenda is concerned.
FURTHER REQUESTS the Commission to report on progress to the 7th Ordinary Session of Council.
Executive Council-Rapporteur’s Report
With regard to the on-going WTO negotiations, Council recommended that special attention should be given by the AU to the crucial issues of agricultural subsidies and commodities, particularly cotton.
Decision on the negotiations of ACP-EU economic Partnership Agreements
COMMENDS the Commission and the RECs for concluding the establishment of an informal Coordination and Information Exchange Mechanism on EPA Negotiations with the European Union (EU) for which the Commission has been entrusted the coordinating role and also for holding the first meeting of the mechanism successfully;
ENDORSES the recommendations of the Commission/RECs meeting and URGES the Commission to:
Develop institutional capacity building programmes for the Commission and the RECs so as to make work synergies viable and reliable and accelerate the integration process in Africa;
Prepare, in close collaboration with the RECs, requests to the European Union and other development partners for financing of projects that will enhance continental integration;
Identify thecommon supporting programmes relative to implementation of EPAs at the level of the RECs;
Mobilize African research institutes, including the ECA, to appraise the adjustment and other costs of EPAs on African economies.
STRONGLY RECOMMENDS that efforts between the Commission and the RECs be further strengthened and coordinated in the second phase of negotiations, especially with regard to priorities and roadmaps set for negotiations so as to ensure that the process of continental integration in Africa is deepened in accordance with the Constitutive Act of the African Union;
WELCOMES the establishment of the Joint AU-EU Monitoring Mechanism whose objective is to ensure, through exchange of information and discussion of key issues, the consistency and coherence of the EPA process with Africa’s plans and aspirations for regional and continental integration and the establishment of a Pan-African Market and the promotion of synergies between the EPA process and ACP-EU cooperation, notably in the context of regional indicative programmes;
URGES the Commission and the EU to operationalise the mechanism in an effective manner so as to ensure that EPAs indeed enhance the regional integration process and development in Africa as well as the building of regional markets through the effective removal of production, supply and trade constraints;
ALSO URGES the EU to grant access to the Commission as an integration organization to EDF resources for projects of a continental nature;
REQUESTS the Commission to report on progress made on the EPA negotiations to the 7th Ordinary Session of Council in July 2005.
ENDORSES
Candidature of Hon. Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Regional Co-operation of Mauritius, to the post of Director General of the World Trade Organization, at elections scheduled to be held in 2005.
3. Food Security
Permanent Representatives Committee
Ninth Ordinary Session
Report (1X)
Follow-up on Maputo, Sirte and Ouagadogou Declarations on Food Security:
The Commissioner concluded by proposing the creation of an African Food Security Committee to serve as a platform of exchange on matters of food security in the continent, and the establishment of an African Union representational office in Rome to coordinate Africa’s food security matters with relevant world bodies mandated with the issue.
Executive Council
Sixth Ordinary Session
Rapporteur’s Report
Follow-up of Maputo, Sirte and Ouagadogou Declarations on Food Security
On the status of food security in Africa, the following observations were made:
A reliable early warning system be established as it constitutes the preferential tool for combating food insecurity – the early warning system should be capable of anticipating the emergence of food crises, taking stock of production and available resources, and monitoring phenomena such as natural disasters (floods; droughts; invasion or outbreak of endemic diseases affecting animals, crops and plants);
Once established, the early warning system together with continued monitoring should be relied on to generate a steady flow of situation reports as this would facilitate the generation and communication of relevant information to Member States and all stakeholders in time for them to take appropriate measures;
Special attention should be given to the Southern Sahelian region as this area constitutes the main locust corridor between the Sahara and the countries further north;
Regional strategic desert control measures should be implemented by the concerned Member states;
There was need to strengthen the capacity of Member States in the area of fighting migratory pests and animal diseases that pose a threat to food security, and in so doing
to make use of recent technological methods in veterinary science and pest control.
Dakar-Agricultural Initiative
The Senegalese delegation informed Council of the holding in Dakar, Senegal from 4 to 5 February 2005, of the Dakar-Agricultural Initiative which would be a Forum at which agricultural issues would be discussed. It indicated that various key figures from Africa and the rest of the world would be taking part in this meeting and, in this regard, invited all countries of the African Union to participate in this Forum.
Meeting of Ministers of Agriculture
The Egyptian delegation highlighted the importance of agriculture for African economies and underscored the need for Africa to meet to discuss strategic issues such as cotton. It informed Council that Egypt was organizing in May 2005 a meeting of African Ministers of Agriculture with the participation of UNCTAD and other institutions to examine the situation and come up with a Common Position for the defence of African agricultural products.
Assembly of the Africa Union: Decisions and Declarations
Assembly /AU/Dec.59 (IV)
NOTES WITH GRAVE CONCERN the serious economic and social impacts of the 2004 desert locust invasion of the Northern, Western and Eastern regions of Africa;
REQUESTS the Commission and Member States to take all necessary measures to implement the Maputo, Sirte and Ouagadougou Declarations and their relevant Plans of Action;
Agriculture
Decision on allocation of 10% national budgetary resources to agriculture and rural development over the next 5 years
REQUESTS the Chairperson of the Commission to define, in collaboration with Member States and the NEPAD Secretariat, the core areas of agriculture and rural development relevant to the 10% allocation adopted in the Maputo Declarations;
CALLS UPON Member States to implement the present Decision in order to improve the financing of agriculture.
1. Editorial
2. Latest Equinet Updates
This call invites applicants to participate in and present work at the EQUINET regional meeting on “Strategies for Equitable Allocation of health care Resources,” being held in co-operation with the Health Economics Unit, University of Cape Town (HEU) and the Centre for Health Policy, University of the Witwatersrand (CHP) in Johannesburg, South Africa, 18-20 April 2005.
The Regional Network on Equity and Health in Southern Africa (EQUINET) (www.equinetafrica.org) has noted that equity related work needs to define and build a more active role for important stakeholders in health. This means incorporating the power and ability that people (and social groups) have to make choices over health inputs and their capacity to use these choices to improve health. To do this requires a clearer analysis of the social dimensions of health and their role in health equity, i.e. the role of social networking and exclusion, of the forms and levels of participation and of how governance systems distribute power and authority over the resources needed for health. To understand these factors, EQUINET has been carrying out research work to evaluate the current and desired forms of participation within health systems in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania amongst other Southern African countries.
* Abstract Book
http://equinetafrica.org/bibl/docs/ABS012005gov.pdf
EQUINET, PHM, CWGH, TAC, SATUCC, Southern African Social Forum, SEATINI, PATAM and HAI convened a regional meeting of health civil society on February 17-19 2005 in Zambia, with local hosts CHESSORE.
The meeting resolved to build a united health civil society campaign for a national peoples health system. The meeting identified that to build this the region needs to address pressing issues of:
- investing in adequate, well trained, appropriate, equitably distributed and motivated health workers;
- ensuring sustained increased fair financing of the universal right to health, through rising investment in the public health sector;
- building a critical mass of conscious and organised people, with rights to meaningfully participate in their health systems,
- resisting privatisation and promoting public interests and national authority in trade agreements in the health sector.
The meeting agreed that health civil society is unified by common values and pursuit of the fundamental right to health and to life, of equity and social justice and of people led and people centred health systems.
3. Equity in Health
Experts from southern Africa have gathered in Namibia to discuss critical reproductive health challenges in the sub-region and formulate strategies to address them. About 200 delegates will carve out a comprehensive reproductive health component, to be incorporated into the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) framework on related health issues.
Under-nutrition seems to be inexplicable in a world where the food market ascends to the 11% of the global trade and food prices have declined over the last years. Nevertheless it is one of the most important causes of illness and death globally as well as a key factor in poverty reproduction. This is according to a chapter in the Global Health Watch 2005 report. The chapter looks at the underlying causes of under and over nourishment both in developing and developed countries as directly related to the globalisation and liberalisation processes that have been taken place in the last decades. You can read the newsletter of the Global Health Watch and find out how to subscribe through the link below.
Lack of finance has left the Harare Central hospital, one of Zimbabwe's major referral centres, on the verge of collapse. The superintendent of the 1,428-bed hospital, Chris Tapfumaneyi, told IRIN, "Most of our machines are obsolete and cannot be repaired - some of them have been like this for the past 10 years".
The Mozambican Association of Doctors in the Fight Against AIDS (MCS) has warned that the poor quality of the diet of many HIV-positive people, who are receiving anti-retroviral drugs, is a motive for serious concern. The MCS warns that poor nutrition risks undermining anti- retroviral treatment.
According to the World Health Organisation malnutrition is associated with about 60 percent of deaths in children under five years old in the developing world. The WHO has developed guidelines to improve the quality of hospital care for malnourished children in order to reduce deaths. The guidelines suggest ten steps for routine management of severe malnourishment. These will require most hospitals to make substantial changes. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, together with the University of the Western Cape, and the Health Systems Trust, South Africa conducted a study in two hospitals - Mary Theresa and Sipetu - in rural Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study was designed to assess the extent to which the guidelines have been implemented and whether they have reduced fatality rates among children diagnosed with severe malnutrition.
4. Values, Policies and Rights
"The international migration of health workers away from underserved areas in low income countries is increasingly recognised as one of the most profound problems facing health systems, and the safeguarding of health, in these countries. The problem is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa where the burdens of poverty and underresourcing, infectious disease and, worthy of distinct mention, HIV/AIDS which has infected up to a quarter of the population in some countries, are causing public health systems to break down...The language of human rights is commonly used when describing the motivations of health workers to migrate to seek a better life and to further their careers. But human rights are less commonly invoked to articulate the consequences of their migration, which may include most notably the impact on the right to health of health system users in the country of origin," says the abstract of this paper commissioned by health charity Medact as part of its programme of work on health, poverty and development.
* Read the related paper 'The ‘Skills Drain’ of Health Professionals from the Developing World'
http://www.medact.org/content/Skills%20drain/Mensah%20et%20al.%202005.pdf
Are people living with mental illness guaranteed the best available mental health care? Evidence suggests that they do not enjoy the same rights, in terms of self-determination and protection from exploitation and discrimination, as do people who do not suffer from mental illness. Some ethical codes do relate specifically to mental health - yet the transition from rhetoric to reality has so far been limited.
As South Africa enters its second decade of democracy, we find that health gains anticipated in 1994 remain unrealized for the majority of our people, particularly the poorest in society. Why is it that, despite a Constitution hailed as the most progressive in the world, a victorious liberation movement and a set of governmental and non-governmental institutions designed to promote human rights in our society, we have failed to translate the provisions of our Bill of Rights into reality? To understand this contradiction, we need to understand, firstly, what are human rights; secondly, the relationship between health and human rights; and, thirdly, how human rights commitments can be translated into health-generating conditions and material gains in health for those who need it most. There are potential contradictions between a human rights approach and broad strategies for Primary Health Care, but these arise because of an incomplete or selective understanding of human rights, sometimes deliberately so, intended to further neo-liberal or imperialist political agendas.
What are human rights?
Human rights can be described as claims (material or social) that individuals make on society that are essential for their dignity and well-being. Rights are usually incorporated in national and international law (although Apartheid South Africa flouted this). The impetus for developing a human rights infrastructure was the revelation of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in World War II. As a result, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) based on the idea that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." Unlike principles of medical ethics, once a treaty is ratified by a state, it becomes law and binds its conduct.
A human rights approach implies the use of rights as a set of standards to develop policy; or to monitor and analyse policy to hold governments accountable; or as a lobbying and advocacy tool to mobilise civil society.
However, human rights are not a uniformly understood set of concepts and principles and there is much dispute about rights. Two broad categories of rights emerged following the UDHR, civil and political rights (like traditional freedoms of speech, movement, the vote etc) and socio-economic rights (to housing, water, health, education etc). Driven primarily by Cold War political agendas this is a false dichotomy, since rights are indivisible. One cannot enjoy civil and political rights unless socio-economic conditions are such that you are adequately clothed, educated, fed and healthy enough to exercise civil and political rights.
Another criticism is that rights are generally framed as belonging to individuals, who are seen to exist in isolation, a typical Western philosophical tradition. In contrast, traditional societies are constructed on a web of relations - social, economic, cultural and political - in which humans exist as social beings and where social interactions, clashes and conflicts, form the basis of social relations. This has given rise to some suspicion of rights as a culturally imposed practice.
5. Health equity in economic and trade policies
The emergence of an increasingly global economy suggests that the ability of individual countries to shape their own destinies is becoming more difficult. International trends and pressures now influence national, and even local, health care policy making. Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, together with Oxford University, looked at the effect of globalisation on health issues in South Africa and assessed its influence compared to national and local forces. Political and economic developments in the international arena will inevitably influence health issues in South Africa. Institutions such as the WHO and the World Bank, together with international events such as the spread of AIDS, affect health care in the country. However local forces also play a large part in shaping the future of the South African health service.
"February 26, 2005 has been named a day of international protest against the actions of the Government of India. People around the world are calling to question the humaneness of a patent modification that permits the private sector to profit from public health. The Indian Patent Ordinance prescribes “TRIPS-PLUS” standards, which takes the country beyond the commitments agreed to under the TRIPS agreement. The Patent act has fostered the pharmaceutical industry in India, provided affordable medication to millions within India and the rest of the developing world. As of December 26, 2005, by Presidential Ordinance, the patent Act has been modified; we now face Product Patent protection for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals in India."
6. Poverty and health
This article from the Bulletin of the World Health Organization highlights the association between poverty and major risk factors for ill-health. Research was focused on people in low and middle income countries within each of the World Health Organization (WHO) sub-regions. Findings showed that in each sub-region, poverty was strongly associated with increased malnutrition among children, having access only to unsafe water and poor sanitation, and exposure to indoor air pollution. The authors suggest that halving the number of people who live on less than a dollar a day would still fail to reduce the prevalence of these health risks by the 50 per cent needed to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets.
This paper from World Institute for Development Economics Research looks at the impact of globalisation on rural poverty, in both the agricultural and non-agricultural sector. The paper analyses the processes through which globalisation, in terms of openness to foreign trade and long- term capital flows, affects the lives of the rural poor. The author believes that globalisation can cause many hardships for the poor but it also opens up opportunities which some countries utilise and others do not. This largely depends on their domestic political and economic institutions and policies.
"Ill-health and the household costs of illness can undermine livelihoods and contribute to impoverishment, processes that have been brought into sharper focus by the social and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Concerns about the links between ill-health and impoverishment have placed health at the centre of development agencies' poverty reduction targets and strategies and increased the weight of arguments for substantial health sector investments to improve access for the world's poorest people (WHO 2001)." The aim of this paper from the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia in the UK is to review and summarise studies that have measured the economic costs and consequences of illness for patients and their families, focusing on malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
7. Human Resources
"The loss of professionals and other skilled people from the SADC region is fast assuming the dimensions of a major crisis," says this article on the website of Idasa. "The countries of southern Africa pour vast resources into training to ensure that future skills needs are met. But is all this investment in human resource development really going to benefit the countries concerned? Or are they, in effect, simply providing students with "skill passports" so that they can relocate to other parts of the world?"
February's WHO Bulletin looks at the migration of skilled professionals to industrialized countries as one of the factors behind the chronic shortage of health workers in many developing countries. "….International recognition that the growing shortage of health workers poses a major threat to fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis has prompted a flurry of measures to stem the exodus of health professionals from developing countries."
"Human resources (HR) constraints have been reported as one of the main barriers to achieving the 2005 global tuberculosis (TB) control targets in 18 of the 22 TB high-burden countries (HBCs); consequently we try to assess the current HR available for TB control in HBCs...(The study concluded that) There were few readily available data on HR for TB control in HBCs, particularly in the larger ones. The great variations in staff numbers and the poor association between information on workforce, proportion of trained staff, and length and quality of courses suggested a lack of valid information and/or poor data reliability. There is urgent need to support HBCs to develop a comprehensive HR strategy involving short-term and long-term HR development plans and strengthening their HR planning and management capabilities."
This article, from Human Resources for Health, examines the experiences of using substitute health workers (SHW) in Africa. The review focuses mainly on physicians and reviews data from Tanzania, Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Ghana. Findings demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of using SHWs and higher rates of retention within countries and in rural communities. However, problems are also identified, including the potential among SHWs for poor clinical decision making and lack of adherence to clinical regulations.
8. Public-Private Mix
Research for Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) commissioned ETC Crystal to examine the equity implications of health sector user fees in Tanzania, with particular reference to proposed and actual charges at dispensary and health centre level. This year, Tanzania will review its Poverty Reduction Strategy. With the findings of the user fee study, REPOA aims at making a valuable contribution to the review process and provide country-specific insight into one of the most debated issues in health financing.
9. Resource allocation and health financing
"Studies conducted in developed countries using economic models show that individual- and household- level variables are important determinants of health insurance ownership. There is however a dearth of such studies in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between health insurance ownership and the demographic, economic and educational characteristics of South African women...(It concluded that) Poverty reduction programmes aimed at increasing women's incomes in poor provinces; improving living environment (e.g. potable water supplies, sanitation, electricity and housing) for women in urban informal settlements; enhancing women's access to education; reducing unemployment among women; and increasing effective coverage of family planning services, will empower South African women to reach a higher standard of living and in doing so increase their economic access to health insurance policies and the associated health services."
10. Equity and HIV/AIDS
This joint policy brief from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS identifies key actions needed to address the gender dimensions of equity in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Gender-based inequalities put women and girls at increased risk of HIV infection. These inequalities also affect women's access to and interaction with health services, including HIV prevention and AIDS care. The brief argues that to address these inequalities in HIV treatment, care and prevention, it is essential to consider the different needs and constraints of women and men in different settings.
"We describe a number of pitfalls that may occur with the push to rapidly expand access to antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa. These include undesirable opportunity costs, the fragmentation of health systems, worsening health care inequities, and poor and unsustained treatment outcomes. On the other hand, AIDS "treatment activism" provides an opportunity to catalyze comprehensive health systems development and reduce health care inequities. However, these positive benefits will only happen if we explicitly set out to achieve them. We call for a greater commitment toward health activism that tackles the broader political and economic constraints to human and health systems development in Africa, as well as toward the resuscitation of inclusive and equitable public health systems."
Near hysterical media reports last week reported on a strain of HIV resistant to drugs from three main classes of antiretrovirals. But this article from HIV information site www.aidsmap.com says that perhaps the reason for the reaction to the case- reported in New York - and its reporting lies not in its medical significance, but in its importance to current US debates on comprehensive or abstinence-only HIV prevention. Visit the site to read the full article.
Between 1997 and 2002, according to a new report from Stats SA, South Africa's official statistics agency, the number of recorded deaths in the age group from 20 to 45 more than doubled, from a little over 100,000 to more than 200,000. Although most deaths likely to be linked to AIDS are officially recorded as due to associated diseases such as TB and pneumonia, the age and disease pattern provides strong evidence of the growing impact of AIDS. Other previous studies, such as those from South Africa's Medical Research Council, have provided similar indications. But the issue is still contentious, as AIDS denialists have used the relatively low numbers attributed directly to AIDS to claim that researchers are exaggerating the problem. The latest issue of the AfricaFocus Bulletin contains postings that examine the issues in detail.
The UN has warned that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by governments to curb poverty and promote gender equality by 2015 could fail unless developing countries make HIV/AIDS a priority. A new report, 'Hope: Building Capacity: Least Developed Countries Meet the HIV/AIDS Challenge', said priorities must include the aggressive pursuit of policies that promote women's empowerment and the eradication of AIDS-related discrimination.
11. Governance and participation in health
This study sought to analyse and better understand the relationship between health centre committees in Zimbabwe as a mechanism of participation and specific health system outcomes, including: Improved representation of community interests in health planning and management at health centre level; Improved allocation of resources to health centre level, to community health activities and to preventive health services; Improved community access to and coverage by selected priority promotive and preventive health interventions; Enhanced community capabilities for health (through improved health knowledge and health seeking behaviour, appropriate early use of services); Improved quality of health care as perceived both by providers and users of services.
The Synergy Project documents a successful model for facilitating a strong community response to HIV and AIDS. The model was used in the Salvation Army Change programme in the Ndola and Choma districts of Zambia. It aims to build on local strengths and resources which enable ordinary people to address barriers to using HIV and AIDS information and services. The basis of this approach is that the demand for and use of voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), prevention of mother-to-child transmission and antiretroviral therapy services will only increase by addressing risk, stigma and the potential for personal change.
This article is an examination and sustained critique of current approaches to communication and information provision within health settings. The authors argue that current practices are based in a one-way model of information transfer that is characterised by a focus on individual behaviour and responsibility, and which is rooted in power relations that are derived from an expert-oriented, unidirectional pattern of speech. They support their criticisms with evidence from a series of qualitative interviews with different populations being addressed, focusing on different subject areas.
12. Monitoring equity and research policy
"Research is a widely applied instrument for harnessing knowledge and providing insight into complex development issues. It helps in generating options for policy, management and action, and in empowering people and organizations in developing and transition countries, as well as industrialised countries. Ultimately this should make it easier to cope with the challenges of sustainable development under increasingly difficult circumstances. Research for development is therefore frequently placed in an application oriented context, in which concepts like inter and transdisciplinary research, equity, ownership, participation, etc. are widely accepted, but are not always put into practice. Research partnerships of various types and intensities, involving research institutions in industrialised and developing or transition countries, are important means for contributing to knowledge generation and capacity building."
13. Useful Resources
Accessing relevant development knowledge is a key challenge for many researchers in developing and transition countries. The Global Development Network (GDN) and the British Library of Development Studies (BLDS) have teamed up to address this issue with a new Document Delivery Service. The service will provide research institutes in the South with access to Europe's largest research collection on economic and social change in developing countries.
Global Public Health is a new peer review journal that will engage with key public health issues in the global context - mounting inequalities between rich and poor; the globalisation of trade; new patterns of travel and migration; epidemics of newly-emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases; the increase in chronic illnesses; escalating pressure on public health infrastructures around the world; and the growing range of conflict situations and environmental threats.
The overall aims of this discussion are to share our experiences and raise awareness about the issues of mobile populations and HIV/AIDS, particularly in the Southern African region. The discussion will explore the specific factors that increase HIV/AIDS vulnerability for mobile populations as well as examine how HIV/AIDS affects migration patterns. It will also focus on the particular challenges raised by dwindling human resources in the healthcare sector and its links to HIV/AIDS.
The Synergy HIV/AIDS Online Library contains 3,666 searchable online documents relevant to HIV/AIDS project management, research, and reproductive health issues.
14. Jobs and Announcements
SOMA-Net with support from Sida/SAREC has an ongoing project focusing on the social cultural aspects of HIV/Aids and the youth. This is part of a long term research based in Kenya and Uganda.
The Reproductive Health Response in Conflict (RHRC) Consortium is pleased to announce the publication of two new resources, HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control: A Short Course for Humanitarian Workers Facilitator’s Manual and Guidelines for the Care of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Conflict-affected Settings. Developed by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children on behalf of the RHRC Consortium, these resources aim to assist field-based clinical care staff and humanitarian workers in the prevention, care, and control of HIV/AIDS and STIs in conflict and post-conflict settings.
The AIDS Law Project, a grant funded unit at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, has contract posts for up to two years for a researcher (based in Johannesburg) and a researcher/associate researcher (based in Cape Town) in its Law & Treatment Access Unit (LTAU) from 1 April 2005 or as soon as possible thereafter. These are challenging positions and the successful applicants must be able to work quickly, under pressure and as part of a team.
Why is it that almost a decade after ratifying and acceding the Beijing and Dakar Platforms for Action, after the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, engendering processes of the Millennium Development Goals, Maputo Declaration on Gender Mainstreaming , SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and various other treaties and conventions, southern African countries continue to battle with: gender power imbalances, gender based violence, gender based stigma and discrimination, feminization of poverty and ultimately feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic? SAfAIDS is hosting a southern African Regional Gender Mainstreaming Symposium in Swaziland from 5 - 7 April 2005. The link below also includes a call for participants.
Published for the Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa by Fahamu - learning for change
http://www.fahamu.org/
Contact EQUINET at TARSC c/o admin@equinetafrica.org
EQUINET-Newsletter is hosted on Kabissa - Space for change in Africa
To post, write to: equinet-newsletter@equinetafrica.org
Website: http://www.equinetafrica.org/newsletter
Please forward this to others.
To subscribe, visit http://www.equinetafrica.org
or send an email to info@equinetafrica.org
* Please send materials for inclusion in the EQUINET NEWS to editor@equinetafrica.org