The AAI Scorecard for Women and Girls SRHR in Africa is a research report using the AAI Scorecard methodology and an accountability lens to create transparency, stimulate dialogue and provoke action around the state of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa for women and girls.
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It hopes to make the existing data more available and transparent to all stakeholders. We also hope that it contributes to more urgent dialogue and inspires tangible action towards the promotion of universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights in for all African women and girls.
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To achieve this, the AAI Scorecard for Women and Girls SRHR in Africa deliberately focuses on the Sustainable Development Goals 3, 5 and 10 which aim for Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities.
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The report aims to highlight key issues that affect the full realization of sexual and reproductive health in Africa generally and specifically speaks to SRHR issues within seven African countries: Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
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This scorecard provides a comparison of SRHR indicators among African countries using the AAI Scorecard Methodology explained in detail in this report.
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Download the Scorecard Poster by clicking on the image below
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Findings
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One way to analyse the collection of data in this report is to understand how countries are performing on policy. Whether policy has been transformed into Programming and how and whether and how well this is being implemented. If good policy, is well programmed and implemented, we should see progress in the impact indicators.
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Policy
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Generally, across the continent forward thinking policy and commitments have been put in place, and in some cases Africa actually has policies that are leading on the global stage (Munyati, 2017). This is evidenced by the Maputo Protocol, Maputo Plan of Action and Resolution 275. However major gaps in policy still exist: Policy of access to safe
abortion remains limited, and only a few African countries provide limited provisions within their law for full access to safe abortion. This is with the example of South Africa, Mozambique, Tunisia and Zambia. In contrast, most of African countries prohibit abortions altogether making it difficult for women to fully realize their sexual and reproductive
health and rights. One of the major reasons for these non-progressive stances in Africa on abortion are due to precolonial laws and the influence of religion. Policy on child marriage remains contradictory in many countries, allowing for loopholes which those wishing to marry children are able to use to commit these human rights crimes. Regarding
CSE, most countries are making progress on policy in this regard.
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Programming & implementation
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Once policy has been agreed upon (whether at country, sub-regional (for example East Africa) or regional (Africa), national governments are expected to domesticate them by ratification and then move to step two which is to then ensuring that they develop programmes aimed at implementation. This usually takes the form of guidelines and
programming efforts against the law itself. These programmes then need to be implemented at community level. Indicators like access to safe abortion, ante-natal coverage, unmet need for contraception, and youth access to contraception all reflect whether programming and implementation has been done, and done in a quality manner.
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Impact
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Once all investments are made in sexual and reproductive health and rights, the returns are translated with change in impact indicators such as: maternal mortality, child marriage prevalence, HIV prevalence and FGM prevalence. Africa is not performing well on most of the indicators that show impact. Although there is improvement over tie (not
demonstrated in this report) the progress is too slow and the impact indicators how this.
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Conclusion in summary
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Thus we can only conclude that forward thinking, inclusive and gender informed policy needs to be made, excellent programming and implementation with adequate budgeting then committed to and completed and only then will we see the necessary impact. Africa needs leadership that is fully accountable to women and children and this is currently
lacking.
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Feedback
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Bob Mwiinga Munyati, Senior Researcher at AIDS Accountability International is the principal author of this report, supported by Phillipa Tucker, Research and Communications Director at AAI and Amr Awad, Senior Researcher. Every attempt has been made to ensure the accuracy of this report, but any errors or omissions are our own. The author and AAI welcome any feedback, comments, and/or corrections on the content.
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Bob Mwiinga Munyati: bob at aidsaccountability dot org
Phillipa Tucker: phillipa at @aidsaccountability dot org
Email: info at aidsaccountabilty dot org
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@AAI_aidswatch
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/AIDSAccountabilityInternational
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