Category Archives: UN

Leaving no one behind in the post-2015 development agenda: young marginalized people claim their space

missionbrazil_632The sexual and reproductive health rights of young marginalized populations are often neglected and their collective voice in this critical area not always heard. To try to redress this imbalance young people from marginalized communities and key populations in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Puerto Rico and Uganda met in New York this week to discuss how to put these rights issues firmly on the post-2015 development agenda, leaving no one behind. 

 

Taking place on 25 September, the General Assembly side event which took the form of a panel discussion, examined the vital role of community engagement, advocacy and service delivery in protecting the rights and meeting the needs of young key populations. These include men who have sex with men, sex workers and young people living with HIV.   

 

Young speakers, who were peer educators, directors of national and regional NGOs, actors and community leaders, argued that universal access to HIV services and health coverage could not be achieved without prioritizing the needs of the most marginalized. They also noted the contribution of comprehensive sexuality education to improving young people’s health and the role that communities can play in both promoting rights and challenging stigma and discrimination.

 

The event was hosted by the Government of Brazil and organized by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, GESTOS, the Global Youth Coalition on AIDS, ATHENA, ICASO, International Civil Society Support, STOP AIDS NOW!, Stop AIDS Alliance, the HIV Young Leaders Fund, the African Services Committee, and the Global Forum on MSM and HIV, in collaboration with UNAIDS.

 

Quotes

"Setting goals is only part of the story. Where we should look for change is the way that we will implement the goals. We need to change the way we are doing business and craft the space for civil society in the new post-2015 agenda."

Luiz Loures, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director

 

“We are talking about development here and sexual and reproductive rights are development."

Pablo Aguilera, HIV Young Leaders Fund

 

By UNAIDS

26 September 2014

Source: http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2014/september/20140925csyoungpops/

Ebola: Where is all the development money?

Truthout.org, CC BY-NC-SA

With each week that passes, the Ebola crisis in West Africa deepens. And amid the horror, the fear and a public health response described by Medicine Sans Frontières as “lethally inadequate”, public health systems face total collapse.

 

While the inadequate international response has loomed large, it is the region’s chronically weak and desperately resourced health infrastructure which is the critical factor. This was underlined by Bruce Ribner, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University Hospital in the US who led the successful treatment of two aid workers who contracted Ebola while working in West Africa.

 

Testing we take for granted

 

According to Ribner: “They [West African Doctors] suffer from a terrible lack of infrastructure and the sort of testing that everyone in our society takes for granted, such as the ability to do a complete blood count – measuring your red blood cells, your white blood cells and your platelets – which is done as part of any standard checkup here. The facility in Liberia where our two patients were didn’t even have this simple thing, which everyone assumes is done as part of your annual physical.”

 

Health systems encompass hospitals, clinics, procurements structures, research programmes, community health workers and training provision, and are the first line of defence in the face of outbreaks such as Ebola. When that bulwark is breached so easily, as it was in Sierra Leone and throughout the region, it raises urgent and uncomfortable questions about the focus of our development priorities.

 

In fact, this crisis exposes the great fallacy of the West’s global development agenda. While the international health and development community obsesses about technocratic development goals, targets, and indicators; the basic building blocks of health provision in poor countries have been desperately neglected.

 

Where’s the swell of money?

 

There is a contradiction here. Isn’t it recognised that global health has done well out of the last 15 years of development spending?

 

Three of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) are health related, new philanthropic actors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have prioritised global health as an area of concern, and new financing mechanisms to support vaccinations and HIV/AIDS responses such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria were created.

 

The result: a swell of new money, big name endorsements, and targeted action in critical but singular areas.

 

This tide of resources, expertise and good will has led to a pre-occupation with “vertical interventions” – programmes that prioritise specific diseases such as malaria. This is of course, not a bad thing in itself. Malaria is a scourge on the health and lives of Africans, and programmes to mitigate its transmission and effects are both vital and badly needed. I’m not proposing that we cut off support for disease-specific programmes nor that development is a zero-sum game – but our limited resources can’t ignore the less glamorous but no less urgent areas of clinics, hospitals and systems.

 

The singular focus on specific diseases, to the detriment of health systems in general, is a major reason why we are where we are in West Africa. The failure of the healthcare infrastructure to cope with Ebola should not be a surprise; it is certainly not for those living and working in the region, many of whom have spent decades decrying the ramshackle state of hospitals, clinics and systems.

 

Will this shift priorities?

 

The WHO has stressed the importance of health systems, and the World Bank began to make them the focus of its regional efforts a few years ago. Yet, the idea that health systems should be a key feature of the new Millennium Development Goal process is gaining little traction in international development circles. In short, without a radical focus on health systems; the future is bleak.

 

The struggle to contain Ebola shows how strongly equipped and fully-functioning health systems are fundamental to the management of health emergencies as well as the everyday health and well-being of people in vulnerable, poorer regions.

 

The stubborn focus on goals and specific diseases over the last 15 years has led to a chronic and senseless neglect of health systems in developing countries. This focus has contributed to a catastrophic public health emergency. If we are to salvage anything from this human and regional tragedy, it should include a commitment to invest money and expertise in regional health infrastructure. That requires an urgent and radical shift in our accepted model of global health and development.

 

Source: http://theconversation.com/ebola-crisis-in-west-africa-where-did-all-the-development-money-go-31544

UN warns some MDG targets may be missed

United-nations-UN-flag-picrure

There is a risk that Millennium Development Goals aimed at improving child and maternal mortality and expanding access to sanitation will be missed, the United Nations has warned.

 

With a little over a year to go to ensure the eight MDG targets are met, the UN this week issued a progress report, which showed that goals on poverty reduction, improving drinking water sources, improving the lives of slum dwellers and achieving gender parity in primary schools had already been met.

 

Progress was also being made on MDGs covering hunger, debt relief and malaria, tuberculosis and HIV treatment.

 

‘However, some MDG targets related to largely preventable problems with available solutions, such as reducing child and maternal mortality and increasing access to sanitation, are slipping away from achievement by 2015, despite major progress,’ the UN said.

 

‘The report calls on all stakeholders to focus and intensify efforts on the areas where advances have been too slow or not reached all.’

 

More reliable statistics were needed for monitoring development, the report said. It noted that the number of member states submitting progress reports on HIV/Aids increased from 102 in 2004 to 186 in 2012, helping galavanise global efforts. Funding for HIV programmes more than tripled in this period and 9.5 million people living with HIV were accessing antiretroviral treatment in 2012.

 

UN member states are currently considering a new set of development goals that can replace the MDGs in 2015. These are likely to be agreed in September next year.

 

UN secretary general Ban-Ki Moon said: ‘Our efforts to achieve the MDGs are critical to building a solid foundation for development beyond 2015. At the same time, we must aim for a strong successor framework to attend to unfinished business and address areas not covered by the eight MDGs.

 

‘Tackling growing inequality, in rich and poor countries alike, has become the defining challenges of our times. Our post-2015 objectives must be to leave no one behind.’

By Vivienne Russell

9 July 2014

http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/news/2014/07/un-warns-some-mdg-targets-may-be-missed/

 

US and EU push Africans once more on abortion and homosexuality.

 

UN AIDS Accountability InternationalNEW YORK, April 11, 2014 (C-FAM.org) – Africans are crying foul after wealthy Western countries ambushed them with a draft resolution that re-opens the troublesome issues of abortion and homosexuality in UN negotiations.

 

“You have set a precedent here that will not be forgotten,” said a representative from Cameroon at a briefing three weeks ago. Western countries have proposed a resolution for the annual UN Commission on Population and Development that surreptitiously endorses abortion and homosexuality, even though Africans asked to avoid those controversies.

 

The U.S., European and some Latin countries are increasingly insistent on homosexuality and abortion ahead of negotiations over a new UN development agenda in September, desperate to include homosexuality and abortion in future development efforts.
Africans for their part don’t want to be pressured on these issues, and have repeatedly stated that these are matters best left to countries individually.

 

When powerful western governments made their intentions for the resolution known, the Africans on the commission were furious.

 

The resolution includes references to regional agreements that touch on abortion and sexual orientation and gender identity—contentious issues that do not enjoy universal support at the United Nations. It was prepared by Uruguay, which is chairing the commission this year.

 

During negotiations this week the Africans repeated their position.

 

They don’t want a resolution to touch on substantive issues. They would rather have a resolution that defers to the UN General Assembly with regards to abortion and homosexuality in UN development policies.

 

In 2010 the General Assembly re-committed countries to the development policies agreed to at the 1994 Cairo Conference on Population and Development, and clearly announced that it would not re-negotiate those policies. This year marks the 20thanniversary of the seminal development scheme that made sexual and reproductive health a UN development issue.

The Cairo conference dealt with sexual and reproductive health, but did not include homosexual rights or a right to abortion.
African countries and other developing nations are adamant, now as in 2010, that the Cairo policies should not be re-negotiated or re-interpreted to include abortion and homosexuality.

 

They are worried about re-opening sensitive issues like sexual rights, abortion and homosexuality. The Cairo policies could not have been adopted had they included such rights, and the issues are still controversial 20 years later.

 

In fact, no UN treaty or political document recognizes homosexuality or abortion as rights. The General Assembly has been conspicuously silent on these issues because so many countries still have laws that prohibit and restrict abortion as well as laws that punish sodomy.

 

Together with key allies in Asia and Latin America, Western countries insist that the UN framework must recognize homosexuality and abortion. It is a human rights issue to them.

 

The commission comes on the heels of another UN conference where Western countries had to twist arms in order to get their way with the Africans. It remains to be seen how far they are willing to go this time around.

 

All indications are that Western governments have invested heavily in this meeting. Several of the UN officials and government officials that negotiated the Cairo agreement 20 years ago are at UN headquarters. Abortion groups and UN agencies are also out in force raising the issue of abortion and homosexuality at every turn.

 

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D.
10 April 2014
Source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/us-and-eu-push-africans-once-more-on-abortion-and-homosexuality/

 

CALL FOR SELF FUNDED ORGANISATIONS: ICPD Africa Youth Pre-Conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As part of the on-going review of the ICPD Programme of Action for 2014 and beyond, the Regional Population Conference is being planned by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa together with other partners in September 2013 in Addis Ababa – Ethiopia.

Following the success of the Global Youth Forum and the resounding outcome of that process, it is important that young people from across Africa have an opportunity to discuss in greater details the issues and recommendations that are most relevant to them in relation to the ICPD and Post 2015 development agenda.

As part of the review process, there will be a Youth Pre-Conference to the African Population Conference which is an official part of the main conference and its outcome will be presented to both the Experts Meeting and the Ministerial Meeting.  A number of young people have been selected through national consultations with relevant stakeholders to participate in the Youth Pre-Conference to the African Population Conference.  In addition to this, the Africa ICPD Youth Steering Committee is sending this call out for self-funded youth-led and youth focused organizations to express their interest. There will be about 30 spots allocated to self-funded participants.

We expect participants in the Youth Pre-Conference to be:

  • A leader, or emerging leader, currently working at national, regional or global level in an area that contributes to the ICPD Programme of Action;
  • Working in a paid or voluntary capacity for a civil society organisation engaged in policy development at national and local levels;
  • Working in a paid or voluntary capacity for organizations that have a demonstrable national and/or international reach and mandate;
  • Able to demonstrate outstanding youth advocacy and networking capabilities with concrete examples of achievements in these areas in different contexts;
  • Below the age of 35 with special emphasis on youth under 25 years and youth from vulnerable groups

 

When considering candidates for the youth pre-conference, the Youth Steering Committee will take into account the following key knowledge, skills, awareness and values:

  • A commitment to the values of ICPD
  • Leadership experience
  • Innovation in the arena of policy development and application
  • Desire to contribute to and improve the leadership potential for the civil society sector
  • Willingness to learn and share
  • Eagerness to lead debate and discussions during the youth pre-conference
  • Commitment to follow up activities
  • Track record of achievement/work in ICPD and the Post 2015 development Agenda
  • Proof of availability of funding for youth pre-conference participation

 

We therefore invite interested organizations and individuals (young people) to submit Letters of Interests to participate in the Youth preconference to the Africa Population Conference.

Selected self-funded participants will have to cater for their flights, accommodation and living costs. Snacks, lunch and conference materials will be provided by the organizers. Please send your expression of interest to be considered for one of the 30 spots for self funded participants to the Youth Steering Committee by sending us your:

  1. Name of Sponsoring Organisation
  2. Name of Participating Organisation(if different from 1 above)
  3. Name of Representative and short biography.

Please send this information to icpdysc@gmail.com no later than 2nd August, 2013.

 

UN Deploys Women Protection Advisers to Curb Rape in Africa

Despite the United Nations’ zero-tolerance policy against sexual violence, gender-based crimes have broken out across several of the world’s latest conflict zones. Included on that list are South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, northern Uganda, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

Describing rape as “a weapon of war”, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council last month that sexual violence occurred wherever conflicts raged, “devastating survivors and destroying the social fabric of whole communities”.

“It was a crime under international human rights law and a threat to international peace and security,” he said.

Since most of the heinous crimes are taking place in conflict zones overseen by UN peacekeeping missions, the preeminent international organization is issuing Women Protection Advisers (WPAs) to specifically curb sexual violence in war zones. For starters, they will be deployed with peacekeeping missions in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, DRC, Mali and Somalia.

“First-ever scenario-based training programme”

The secretary-general said that UN Women and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) have developed, on behalf of the UN Action Network, the “first-ever scenario-based training programme for peacekeepers”. Noteworthy is the fact that some UN peacekeepers have in the past, along with aid workers, been accused of sexual violence – specifically in South Sudan, DRC, Ivory Coast and Haiti.

The UN will also set up a team of experts on “the rule of law and sexual violence in conflict”, described as an important tool for strengthening national justice systems and legal frameworks. The team has already provided technical advice to governments in the Central African Republic, Colombia, Ivory Coast, DRC, Guinea, Liberia, Somalia and South Sudan.

DRC situation is “unacceptable”

More recently, in late June, the United Nations described as “unacceptable” several cases of rape of young girls in DRC. Nine young girls, aged between 18 months and 12 years, were admitted to a hospital in South Kivu with marks of violence on their bodies and very serious internal wounds, resulting in the death of two.

“Such violence and abuse is unacceptable and must be brought to an end,” said Roger Meece, head of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC. “These abuses are said to be related to harmful traditional practices perpetrated by individuals who kidnap young children from their communities.”

There were also widespread reports of 135 women and girls allegedly raped by government soldiers in Minova in eastern DRC back in 2012.

Safety and dignity of survivors

The UN should take urgent action to ensure that WPAs be trained before their deployment and encouraged to work collaboratively with already operational humanitarian structures, said Marcy Hersh, a senior advocate for women and girls’ rights at Refugees International. Additionally, they should be held accountable to fundamental and non-negotiable ethical and safety criteria for investigating sexual violence in conflict, which preserves the safety and dignity of survivors.

Hersh said the recently unanimously passed Security Council Resolution 2106 includes language that is in accordance with these recommendations in its calls for the timely deployment of WPAs, their adequate training, and their coordination across multiple sectors.

 

By Thalif Deen

22 July 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201307220443.html?viewall=1

 

UNAIDS lauds U.N. Women executive director Mlambo-Ngcuka appointment

The Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS welcomed the appointment on Thursday of Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as executive director of the U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Mlambo-Ngcuka was the first woman to hold the position of deputy president of South Africa, where she played a significant role in the country’s HIV program. Mlambo-Ngcuka was a chair of the South African National AIDS Council and took a lead in developing broader and more cohesive collaboration with civil society and international partners.

“Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka is a respected leader and brings with her a wealth of experience in promoting the human rights of women and girls,” Michel Sidibé, the executive director of UNAIDS, said. “She will be an important partner in the AIDS response as women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV. We look forward to working closely with her to improve the lives of women and girls everywhere.”

UNAIDS said that respect for women’s reproductive and sexual health and gender equality are a necessity for effectively responding to HIV. Gender inequalities make girls and women more vulnerable to HIV and keep them from accessing HIV services.

U.N. Women was created in 2011 to provide a voice at national, regional and global levels for women’s equality and rights. The entity highlights the contributions and priorities of women living with or affected by HIV, contributing to the integration of gender aspects into policies developed by AIDS councils in more than 35 countries and regional programs.

Starting in June 2012, U.N. Women became the newest of UNAIDS’ 11 co-sponsoring organizations.

By Bryan Cohen

15 July 2013

http://vaccinenewsdaily.com/medical_countermeasures/326063-unaids-lauds-u-n-women-executive-director-mlambo-ngcuka-appointment/

Kenya signals partnership with UNAIDS, Global Fund

The leaders of the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Kenya’s government recently met in Nairobi to discuss the fight against deadly diseases.

Mark Dybul, the executive director of the Global Fund, and Michel Sidibe, the executive director of UNAIDS, met with the leaders of Kenya’s new government, the Global Fund said on Monday. The leaders, other civil society organizations and their partners signed two grant agreements worth $27 million to support new programs to fight diseases like HIV and TB.

“In Kenya, and in other countries, the most effective prevention often comes by reaching those most vulnerable to infection,” Dybul said. “We can be most effective when all partners are moving in the same direction.”

The grants will be jointly implemented by Kenya’s Ministry of Finance and by the African Medical and Research Foundation. The grants will support programs to improve the treatment and diagnosis of TB, reduce diagnostic delays in vulnerable communities, provide nutritional support to TB patients and protect TB/HIV co-infected patients.

“Kenya can have a profound effect on the AIDS response if it continues to lead in a people-centered approach to health,” Sidibe said. “If all people in Kenya can access essential health services with dignity and without fear – then surely this country can tip the balance of the epidemic in Africa.”

Kenya is ranked 13th among the 22 highest burden TB countries in the world. The absolute number of notified TB cases grew 10-fold in Kenya since 1990.

The HIV epidemic is the most significant driver of the TB burden increase in Kenya.

By Paul Tinder

2 June 2013

http://vaccinenewsdaily.com/medical_countermeasures/325851-kenya-signals-partnership-with-unaids-global-fund/

 

Unicef lauds progress on MDGs by Sub-Saharan countries.

Sub Saharan countries are building on impressive strides on health and education, accelerated action needed towards anti-poverty targets

Nairobi, Kenya: – Building on impressive strides made, sub-Saharan Africa must continue to ramp up efforts towards achieving many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their 2015 target date, a new UN report says. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2013 launched today by UNSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Geneva, finds that sub-Saharan Africa has made steady progress for its 1 billion people, with fewer mothers and children dying, growing numbers of women in power and broadened access to health and education services, alongside sharp drops in malaria and tuberculosis deaths.

The eight Millennium Development Goals, with a number of sub-targets covering a range of poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, education and environmental indicators, were agreed by all countries as an outgrowth of the UN Millennium Summit in 2000, most with a due date of 2015.

The MDG Report 2013 emphasizes that progress for all children in sub-Saharan Africa is “within our grasp.” The region doubled its average rate of reduction of child deaths from 1.5 per cent a year in 1990-2000 to 3.1 per cent a year in 2000-2011, although it still has the highest child mortality rate in the world. From 1990 to 2011 for children under age five, the mortality rate dropped by 39 per cent (from 178 deaths per 1,000 live births to 109) and the proportion of those who are underweight dropped from 29 to 21 per cent. Some countries with high under-five death rates, including Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger and Rwanda, reported reductions of at least 60 per cent.

The report says steady progress has been made in expanding access to primary education in the region, with primary school enrolment rates increasing from 60 per cent to 77 per cent between 2000 and 2011.
Efforts to combat diseases are paying off in lives saved, as the region is on its way to halting the spread and reversing the incidence of tuberculosis and is making substantial progress battling malaria. One-third of children were sleeping under insecticide-treated nets in 2011, up from less than 5 per cent in 2000. Among developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa has the second highest access to HIV treatment – 56 per cent of people living with HIV received antiretroviral therapy in 2011.

However, sub-Saharan Africa remains the most severely affected area by HIV. Indicators for women are also improving. Despite having the highest maternal mortality ratio among all regions, sub-Saharan
Africa saw mortality ratios fall by 41 per cent over the past two decades, from 850 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to 500 in 2010.The report says the proportion of parliamentary seats held by women increased from 13 per cent in 2000 to 21 per cent in 2013, the second highest among all developing regions. Globally, one of the highest electoral gains for women in 2012 was seen in Senegal, where women took 43 per cent of parliamentary seats.

The proportion of the region’s population using an improved water source increased from 49 per cent to 63 per cent between 1990 and 2011, according to the report. New sanitation policies adopted in recent years throughout the developing world have shown remarkable success in ending open defecation, a practice that poses serious health and environmental risks to individuals and entire communities. In almost 100 countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, new approaches to sanitation have taken root and the number of declared ‘open-defecation-free villages’ is rising .The proportion of the world’s population resorting to open defecation declined from 24 per cent in 1990 to 15 per cent in 2011.

Building MDG momentum
Work to boost MDG achievement must continue to tackle some of the greatest challenges for the region, the report says. That includes bolstering development efforts to further reduce the poverty rate, which fell only 8 percentage points over the last two decades, and addressing the needs of 414 million people still living on less than $1.25 a day. Accelerated efforts are also needed to continue gains in combating HIV and to build on the momentum in fighting malaria through the use of insecticide-treated nets. The region had the world’s highest child mortality rate and the second highest prevalence of underweight children among all regions in 2011. That year, one in nine children died before age five, more than 16 times the average for developed regions, accounting for 3.4 million of the 6.9 million under-five deaths worldwide. The pace of change must accelerate even further if the MDG target is to be met, the report says, and efforts must concentrate on countries with the highest number of under-five deaths, such as Nigeria, and countries with the highest under-five death rates, such as Sierra Leone and Somalia, with rates of 180 or more per 1,000 live births.

With the region continuing to face rising demands for education from a growing population, the report says 32 million more children were of primary school age in 2011 than in 2000. Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to more than half the world’s outof- school children of primary school age (32 million out of 57 million) and it has the highest rate worldwide of children leaving school early. Slightly more than two out of five students who started primary school in 2010 will not make it to the last grade. The report also calls for action to improve access to sanitation and the lives of slum dwellers. Between 1990 and 2011, the proportion of the population using an improved sanitation facility increased marginally from 26 per cent to 30 per cent, and the high proportion of slum dwellers dropped slightly—from 65 per cent in 2000 to 62 per cent in 2012.
At a time when renewed sets of commitments to the MDGs are being made, the report says aid is unfortunately lagging. The report states that bilateral net official development assistance to sub-Saharan Africa amounted to $26.2 billion in 2012, an 8 per cent drop from 2011. The current shift in aid away from the poorest countries and Africa, and towards middle-income countries, will continue, the recent survey suggests, with a greater share of aid being offered in the form of soft loans rather than grants.

The Millennium Development Goals Report, an annual assessment of global and regional progress towards the Goals, reflects the most comprehensive, up-to-date data compiled by over 27 UN and international agencies and is produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. A complete set of the data used to prepare the report is available at mdgs.un.org

 

By Standard Digital

1 July 2013

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000087250&story_title=sub-saharan-countries-make-progress-on-mdgs

Africa: New HIV Infections Among Children Have Been Reduced By 50 Percent or More in Seven Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Geneva — A new report on the Global Plan towards elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive (Global Plan) has revealed a marked increase in progress in stopping new infections in children across the Global Plan priority countries in Africa.

The report outlines that seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa—Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia—have reduced new HIV infections among children by 50% since 2009. Two others—the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe—are also making substantial progress. It highlights that there were 130 000 fewer new HIV infections among children across the 21 Global Plan priority countries in Africa  – a drop of 38% since 2009.

“The progress in the majority of countries is a strong signal that with focused efforts every child can be born free from HIV,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). “But in some countries with high numbers of new infections progress has stalled. We need to find out why and remove the bottlenecks which are preventing scale-up.”

With a 76% decline since 2009, Ghana showed the greatest decline in the rate of new infections among children and South Africa showed a 63% decline (24 000 fewer new HIV infections in 2012 than in 2009). However, the pace of decline in some of the Global Plan priority countries has been slow and in Angola, new HIV infections have even increased. New infections among children in Nigeria – – which has the largest number of children acquiring HIV (nearly 60 000 new HIV infections among children in 2012)  – remained largely unchanged since 2009. Without urgent action in Nigeria the global target for 2015 may not be reached.

More pregnant women living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral medicines to prevent HIV from being transmitted to their children and for their own health in 2012 than in 2009, with coverage levels exceeding 75% in many countries. Increased coverage has reduced HIV transmission rates from mother to child in most countries. Botswana and South Africa have reduced transmission rates to 5% or below.

“We have the tools required to reach the Global Plan’s goals, and recent data show that we are moving ever closer to their realization,” said Ambassador Eric P. Goosby, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. “This month, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced, the one millionth baby will be born HIV-free due to PEPFAR’s support. Now, we must all continue working together to see the day when no children are born with HIV, which is within our reach,” he added.

The report however also reveals that only half of all breastfeeding women living with HIV or their children receive antiretroviral medicines to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. It outlines that breastfeeding is critical to ensuring child survival and strongly emphasizes the urgent need to provide antiretroviral therapy during the breastfeeding period.

More than half of the children eligible for treatment in South Africa and Swaziland now have access. Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe have doubled the numbers of children accessing treatment from 2009 to 2012.

While the report outlines that the number of children requiring HIV treatment will reduce as new HIV infections decline, urgent steps need to be taken to improve early diagnosis of HIV in children and ensure timely access to antiretroviral treatment.

The number of pregnant women living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy for their own health has increased since 2009. In Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia, more than 75% of the pregnant women eligible receive antiretroviral therapy and more than 50% in Kenya, Lesotho, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Increasing access to antiretroviral therapy for pregnant women living with HIV for their own health is critical.

The Global Plan towards elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive is an initiative spearheaded by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which was unveiled in June 2011 at the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS. It has two main targets for 2015: a 90% reduction in the number of children newly infected with HIV and a 50% reduction in the number of AIDS-related maternal deaths. The Plan focuses on the 22* countries which account for 90% of new HIV infections among children.

This second progress report presents the progress made by the 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and some of the challenges they face in meeting the agreed targets for 2015.

* Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

By ALL Africa News

25 June 2013

http://allafrica.com/stories/201306270730.html?viewall=1