Category Archives: Capacity building

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

US Supreme Court strikes down policy requiring AIDS groups to oppose prostitution in order to receive US Government funds.

Clinical Director Chuck Cloniger (R) seeing his patient, Tanesh Watson for medical counseling at St. James Infirmary in San Francisco, a medical and social service organization for current and former sex workers of all genders, on 14 June 2012 in California. Credit: UNAIDS/K.Hoshino

On 20 June 2013, the United States (US) Supreme Court struck down section 7631(f) of the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (The Leadership Act). This provision which the Court called the “policy requirement” mandates that no funds made available under the Leadership Act may “provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.”

The US Supreme Court ruled in response to a challenge filed on 23 September 2005 by 5 civil society organizations against the provision and its negative impact on their efforts to address HIV.  The organizations include: Alliance for Open Society International; the Open Society Institute; Pathfinder International; the Global Health Council; and InterAction.

The US Supreme Court held that the policy requirement violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution which protects free speech. In particular, the Court held that the “policy requirement compels as a condition of federal funding the affirmation of a belief that by its nature cannot be confined with the scope of the Government program.”  The Court noted that “the First Amendment prohibits the government from telling people what they must say.”

Commenting on the decision of the Court, Purnima Mane of Pathfinder International said, “It has been a long and uphill battle, but we are very happy that the Court has spoken out in defense of our ability to engage with sex workers so we can better put in place programs that protect them and their clients from HIV.”

Respondents had claimed, among other things, that adopting a policy explicitly opposing prostitution may diminish the effectiveness of some of their HIV programs by making it more difficult to work with sex workers—a population at higher risk of HIV infection.

In its 2012 report, the Global Commission on HIV and the Law already noted that, “The pledge puts grantees in an impossible bind. If they don’t sign, they are denied the funds they need to control and combat HIV. If they sign, recipient organisations are barred from supporting sex workers in taking control of their own lives.”

Female sex workers are 13.5 times more likely to be living with HIV than other women of reproductive age in low-income and middle-income countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region with the highest HIV prevalence, the pooled HIV prevalence among sex workers is 36.9%.

The involvement and empowerment of sex workers with regard to HIV prevention, treatment and care services has shown to have great impact in reducing HIV infections among both female sex workers and the overall adult population. “The end of this requirement is a significant victory for sex workers and their advocates globally. Our contributions to effective HIV responses have now been recognised,” said Ruth Morgan-Thomas of the Global Network of Sex Work Project.

Given the importance of the case for the global AIDS response, the UNAIDS Secretariat participated as an amicus curiae (friend of the court). In that role, UNAIDS provided public health evidence and human rights arguments to support greater access to funding and resources for organisations engaged in HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services with and for sex workers. UNAIDS main points to the Supreme Court included:  1) Sex workers are among the populations most affected by HIV; 2) engagement with sex workers is essential to an effective response to HIV; and 3) any effective response requires adequate funding for programmes designed to ensure HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for sex workers.

UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé praised the groups that were courageous enough to challenge the provision. “This shows civil society at its best – advocating for global health for all.  No group, including sex workers, should be left behind in our efforts to bring the AIDS epidemic to an end.”

US funding critical to HIV response

US leadership and generosity has been instrumental in the progress made in the global AIDS response over the last decade. Since the adoption of the Leadership Act, some 45.7 billion dollars have been made available to address HIV worldwide. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), authorized by the Leadership Act, has been the largest health initiative ever undertaken by one country to address a global health epidemic. Thanks to US funding, access to HIV treatment has been expanded in low- and middle-income countries, and millions of lives are being saved. The decision of the US Supreme Court to strike down the policy requirement will greatly contribute to expand and improve the global AIDS response even further.

By UNAIDS

21 June 2013

http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2013/june/20130621ussupremecourtdecision/

 

More people living longer with HIV in SA.

South Africa has more people living longer with HIV, which is attributed to the country’s anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programme. The National HIV Household Survey for 2012 shows about 6.4 million people in South Africa are living with HIV, or about 12.3% of the population.

These figures are up from 5.6 million or 10.3% of the population, in 2008. Over 2 million people are on ARV treatment.

Dr Khangelani Zuma of the Human Sciences Research Council presented some of the survey’s findings at the 6th South African Aids Conference in Durban.

“When we looked deeper into the results is that the prevalence of HIV has increased among people who are 25 years and above, but among those that are 15 years to 24 years HIV prevalence has gone down, which means actually fewer youth is HIV positive. But more people who are 25 and above are HIV positive which has a steady increase that could be attributed to the success of ARV therapy,” says Zuma.

A more worrying finding is that condom use among the youth between 15 to 24 years, and among adults aged 25 to 49 has significantly declined.

The Health Department’s Dr Yogan Pillay says they’re extending condom distribution.

“The department is currently working on condom distribution plans at district level which is far more targeted for both male and female condoms because we recognise that while we need combination prevention, condoms work,” says Pillay.

Pillay adds: ” We buy a lot of condoms, 500 male condoms are not enough but 12 million female condoms. The question is who is using it and for those that are not using it why aren’t they using it and what can we do about it. Those are critical questions that we need to answer.”

20 June 2013

By The SABC

http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/fe35ca80400ec8cbb054f20b5d39e4bb/More-people-living-longer-with-HIV-in-SA-20132006

 

Eastern Cape’s Mthatha problem

In a damning report to be released at the SA Aids Conference today, civil society groups describe what happens when the drug supply chain goes wrong. As the Mthatha medical depot in the Eastern Cape remains dysfunctional, over 100,000 people are affected, with many unable to access life-saving medication. Still, the province doesn’t believe there’s a problem. By GREG NICOLSON.

Five months ago, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Section27, the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) warned that while government focuses on improving the delivery of primary healthcare, parts of the system are in a state of crisis. In the Eastern Cape, the problems are illustrated at the Mthatha health depot.

The crisis hit in September 2012. The national transport strike meant deliveries to the depot slowed before the centre’s staff also went on strike. The centre serves over 300 medical facilities and affects over 100,000 people. When MSF and TAC went to investigate, they found no staff to unload deliveries at the depot, no one to capture orders from medical facilities and no one pack the orders for delivery. Few employees returned from the bitter wildcat strike. Service delivery had collapsed, causing interruptions in patients’ antiretroviral (ARV) and other treatments. With interruptions comes the risk of developing resistance to the drugs.

MSF and TAC provided the resources to clear the backlog of orders of medical supplies and in a relatively short period, the depot was working again. They called on national and provincial government to intervene urgently by sending in the relevant pharmacists and managers, resolving the industrial relations problems and restocking the depot.

The report to be released today at the 6th South African Aids Conference, being held in Durban, shows that the recommendations were largely ignored and the situation remains dire.

“This situation is catastrophic. It means many thousands of people living with HIV have risked treatment interruption for months now. The stock-outs consequently undermine clinical benefits of life-saving ARV treatment. Over time, more deaths will occur as a result, and the likelihood of increased drug resistance is significant,” said Dr Amir Shroufi, deputy medical coordinator for MSF in SA.

Of 70 facilities supplied by the Mthatha depot that were surveyed in May, investigators found 40% experienced HIV or TB drug stock-outs. Of the affected facilities, 24% had sent patients away because they did not have the required HIV or TB medicines. Little has changed as the stock-outs were found to last an average 45 days.

“It seems very little was learnt from our report in January to the Eastern Cape health authorities. It is unacceptable that there has been little or no change. We demand that Eastern Cape MEC for health, Sicelo Gqobana, take leadership to end these stock-outs,” said Vuyiseka Dubula, TAC general secretary, in a press release.

The January report mentioned medical practitioners were trying to hold out against the impacts of the shortages by taking it upon themselves to source drugs. The impact, however, was still severe. The organisations estimated that at least 5,494 adults weren’t able to take some of their ARVs and 561 children were sent home without treatment. An estimated 714 patients could have developed drug resistance, resulting in 20-80 excess mortalities because of the unplanned treatment interruption.

“In November I was told there was no TDF [a type of ARV] at my clinic so I went for one week without any treatment. I felt terrible. ARVs are a lifelong treatment. I thought maybe I am going to die,” said one respondent to the January report. “I am afraid to die, every time they tell me there is no treatment I think of dying,” commented another.

Sizwe Kupelo, spokesman for the Eastern Cape MEC of Health, slammed the claims that the crisis is continuing. Speaking to Daily Maverick over the phone, he accused MSF of “deliberately distorting the facts” and said Tuesday’s statement was “a clear mischievous attempt to mislead the world”.

Kupelo blamed the depot’s problems on last year’s wildcat strike. Since then, the provincial department has advertised 29 positions to replace fired staff and filled 15 posts, said Kupelo. It has appointed pharmacists, a supply chain manager and is finalising the appointment of a number of key members.

Allowing MSF and TAC to work in the depot was a “ground-breaking move” by the province, said Kupelo, claiming the organisations are now politicising public health by peddling “a deliberate distortion of the facts”. According to the department, there are adequate ARVs and other drugs in stock.

“So that does not suggest a crisis. No clinic and no hospital in the region has reported a drug shortage,” said Kupelo. The department has assisted the Hawks in arresting eight officials suspected of stealing medication, he added.

The spokesman was outraged by claims that mismanagement of the health system contributed to the drug shortages. MSF held its position on Tuesday and referred to its research.

“The dysfunction of the Mthatha depot is a symptom of the ailing state of health care in the Eastern Cape more broadly,” reads the report being released today. “Doctor Trudy Thomas, the first MEC of Health in the Eastern Cape said: ‘Over the last 15 years, I have witnessed the progressive deterioration of the Eastern Cape Department of Health and the services it offers. This trend grew most acute over the last year and has culminated into a full-blown catastrophe’.”

The report continues: “The problems to which Thomas refers, include, amongst others, the failure to properly budget; financial mismanagement; poor, or no systems for human resources; crumbling infrastructure; poor supply chain management; the lack of accountability and the lack of proper management generally. The breakdown at the Mthatha depot is an example of these different elements combining to culminate in the desperate failure to deliver essential drugs and supplies in a timely and reliable fashion.”

MSF also dismissed the claim that no medical facilities are out of stock. When it contacted facilities at the end of May for a progress update since the TAC and MSF finished its intervention, 24% of them reported stock-outs and all details were forwarded to the Mthatha depot staff.

In a speech on Tuesday evening marking the beginning of the SA Aids Conference, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi outlined a number of challenges and priorities for his ministry. Motsoaledi has been widely praised for his determination to tackle some of the key problems in the health system and in particular HIV/Aids. Enormous challenges, however, remain, particularly at local levels. Mthatha is a prime example. If drugs don’t get delivered to those who need them, patients will suffer.

“Urgent action is required in order to ensure that patients do not face ongoing treatment disruption, risking drug resistance and death,” says the report. DM

Photo: Children play soccer on a field in the Ngangelizwe township, about 20 km from Mthatha in the Eastern Cape on Sunday, 20 June 2010. Picture: Jordi Matas/SAPA

19 June 2013

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-06-19-eastern-capes-mthatha-problem/#.UcGB5-f7CbI

Uganda’s maternal death reduces – WHO report

By Cathy Mwesigwa and Anne Mugisa

Uganda’s maternal deaths have been reducing at an annual rate of 5.1% in the past 10 years, a just released World Health Organisation (WHO) report has said.

It however, pointed out that the country is still lagging behind in the reduction of maternal deaths which by 2010, stood at 310, over twice the 150 target set by the UN to be realized by 2015.

It is eighth among the African countries that are making progress in reducing maternal mortality with Rwanda leading the pack with an annual reduction of 8.7% between 2000 and 2010.

The report titled ‘Count down to 2015: maternal, newborn and child survival’ was released at the ongoing Women Deliver global conference that has attracted 5000 participants from 145 countries to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The participants include representatives of international Development Agencies, funding organisations, philanthropists, government representations, NGOs and Media. They are meeting to share best practices, identify opportunities and challenges to improving maternal health and universal access to reproductive health and rights.

The report is an update on the situation in by 2013 features country profiles featuring core indicators selected by the Commission on information and accountability for women and children’s health.

The count down to 2015 is a global movement of academics, governments, international agencies, professional organizations, donors and NGOs. It uses country specific data to track stimulate and support country progress towards achieving the child related development goals especially MDG 4 on reduced child mortality and 5 on improving maternal health.

It pointed out that maternal and child mortality has been dropping over the past two decades globally, but in some countries particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where fertility remains high, progress has been slower. It said that child deaths are increasingly concentrated in the first month of life. New born deaths now account for 40% or more of all child deaths in 35 of the countdown countries.

“These countries must be prioritized for collective global, regional and national action,” the report said…,” it said of maternal health. “Improving newborn survival, including reducing still births, must be a major focus of policies and programmes,” it added for the child deaths.

It said that under-nutrition coupled with infectious diseases contributed to almost half of all child deaths. Levels of stunting which is a form of growth failure resulting from chronic under-nutrition remain unacceptably high in virtually all the 75 countries.

The report also asked that nutrition must continue to be emphasized as an essential ingredient of maternal, new born and child programmes,” it said. It also called for more efforts to deal with the high fertility levels and the unmet need for family planning.

“Significant challenges remain before us. High population growth remains a looming obstacle to progress in countries where health systems are least equipped to respond to escalations in demand, and pervasive inequities must be addressed if we are to fulfill the promise of MDG 4 and 5 for millions of women and children…,” it stated.

But it said that it is a report of hope showing some successes which show that commitment, investment and coordinated action can yield concrete results. It asked others to learn from the success stories.

Uganda’s maternal mortality ratio has been reducing from 600 in 1990 to 530 in 2000 and by 2010 was at 310. In East Africa its rate of reduction is behind Rwanda’s which reduced at a rate of 8.7% between 2000 and 2010.

It was followed by Tanzania with a 4.6 decline rate, Kenya with a 2.9% decline rate and Burundi whose maternal mortality reduced at a 2.6% rate in the past decade.

3 June 2013

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/643503-uganda-s-maternal-death-reduces-who-report.html

Adolescent girls critical to post-2015 agenda

Pregnant women paint their bellies before an event to celebrate "Healthy Maternity Week" in Lima May 30, 2013. REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

UN Women staked an important claim this month in the turf war that is the post-2015 development agenda. Its contribution, a note titled, “Stand-Alone Goal on Achieving Gender Equality, Women’s Rights and Women’s Empowerment: Imperatives and Key Components in the context of the Post-2015 Framework and Sustainable Development Goals,” is a great start.  But it doesn’t go far enough.

Those of us who advocated for a higher-profile and more consolidated UN agency to lead efforts related to gender equality and women’s empowerment hoped that UN Women would not only be taken seriously, but that it would also be a bold and envelope-pushing entity in the global development arena. With Michele Bachelet’s initial leadership, the agency was indeed taken seriously. And sometimes, under her leadership, it was bold.  Now, as the international community sets the development agenda for the coming decades, and as it looks to UN Women to lead the discussion of where women and girls fit in that agenda, it’s time to push that envelope.

In the note that’s not yet publicly available but that has been making its way through various networks, UN Women argues for both a stand-alone goal to achieve gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment and for the integration of gender considerations throughout and across all other goals, as relevant. This is a smart strategy. On the one hand, because integration alone is not sufficient to provide the level of attention we need to ensure gender equality, we still need a specific goal with specific targets and indicators by which to measure progress.  And on the other, we know that gender issues must be specifically identified and addressed across all development efforts if they are to be successful.

UN Women identifies freedom from violence, gender equality in capabilities and resources, and gender equality in decision-making power and voice as the three core areas of focus.  They proceed to explain these targets in greater detail and even provide illustrative indicators which they indicate are “designed to measure progress towards transformative change in gender relations.” A good and aspirational first step. But as a community of women’s rights advocates, we need to not just step, but leap.

UN Women notes that the proposed indicators for the three target areas are based on internationally agreed standards, and for a UN agency, this is standard procedure – they’re not going to extend far beyond the boundaries of what their member states have agreed to (that’s why advocates are needed).  But even within these self-imposed guidelines, there is room to demand more.

Adolescent girls, often highly vulnerable and overlooked in international development spheres, are only called out in relation to violence and education. There’s no mention of the needs of adolescent girls to access health information and services, no mention of their reproductive rights, and conspicuously absent is child marriage, a human rights violation which more than 14 million girls are newly subject to each year. Working towards ending the harmful practice should be indicated as a distinct target in this and other relevant development goals, as it profoundly impacts a community’s ability to transform gender roles and hobbles development progress.

Where UN Women does specify age groups, they mention only those “over 15 years old,” leaving out very young adolescent girls altogether. True, most data collected for national and international surveys, such as the Demographic and Health Surveys, start with girls aged 15 or even 18, but if we are looking at ways to truly “transform” international development and women’s lives for the next generation, we need to identify as a priority the need to collect data in order to better understand the reality of very young adolescents’ lives – and how that reality can impact the course of their adult lives.

Finally, sexual health and rights are left off the table altogether.  Since its creation, UN Women has largely deferred to UNFPA on issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), though its conciliatory statements about these issues at the start of this year’s Commission on the Status of Women placed SRHR advocates, including many governments, on their heels.

We cannot achieve gender equality and women’s rights unless all individuals, regardless of age, gender, or where they live, have not only the right, but also the ability, to make informed decisions about their bodies, their sexual partners and their relationships, free from violence, discrimination and coercion.

As we proceed through the next phases of the post-2015 development agenda, all advocates of gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment, including UN Women, should stand boldly and press forward courageously to ensure that the full and comprehensive needs and rights of both women and girls around the world are taken seriously.

 

31 May 2013
By Suzanne Petroni
http://www.trust.org/item/20130531140410-vgxie/

Facebook Vows To Crack Down On Rape Joke Pages After Successful Protest, Boycott

An example such a rape joke on Facebook.

In what amounts to a big win for advocates working against online domestic abuse jokes and references, Facebook has said it will try to crack down on pages that include hate speech, particularly “gender-based hate.”

The social media giant released a statement to that effect Tuesday afternoon, following a wave of online advocacy spearheaded by the groups Women, Action and the Media (WAM!) and the Everyday Sexism project.

 

While there have been protests against similar Facebook groups in the past, the latest campaign against so-called “rape joke” pages began on May 21, 2013, when WAM! wrote an open letter to Facebook, demanding the company address rape and domestic violence references on its site.

“Specifically, we are referring to groups, pages and images that explicitly condone or encourage rape or domestic violence or suggest that they are something to laugh or boast about,” the letter read. “Pages currently appearing on Facebook include Fly Kicking Sluts in the Uterus, Kicking your Girlfriend in the Fanny because she won’t make you a Sandwich, Violently Raping Your Friend Just for Laughs, Raping your Girlfriend and many, many more.”

Following the online publication of the letter, 15 companies agreed to pull their ads from the site. A separate Change.org petition calling on Facebook to remove groups that promote sexual violence was signed by more than 224,000 people.

Originally, Facebook claimed that much of the content referenced by WAM! did not technically violate its current policies, according to ThinkProgress, which noted the site has proven much more aggressive when it comes to screening anti-Semitic, Islamophobic or homophobic references. (In addition, Facebook has often been criticized by breastfeeding proponents who claim the site incorrectly blocks nursing photos.)

However, the site appears to have rethought that original position, according to a statement posted Tuesday. The statement reads, in part:

In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate. In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria. We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards. We need to do better – and we will.

The statement also details a series of steps the company plans to take in order to accomplish these goals. The steps include updating the guidelines used to evaluate reported hate speech, updating training procedures for staff, increasing the accountability of those who post offensive speech — even if it does not violate Facebook standards — and working closely with groups like WAM! to “assure expedited treatment of content they believe violate our standards.”

WAM! later praised Facebook’s statement on its own website, calling the site an Internet leader for addressing hate speech.

“We are reaching an international tipping point in attitudes towards rape and violence against women,” WAM! executive director Jaclyn Friedman wrote. “We hope that this effort stands as a testament to the power of collaborative action.”

Soraya Chemaly, a feminist writer, advocate and co-author of the “Open Letter to Facebook” last week, took to Twitter to express her approval as well.

 

By Meredith Bennett-Smith

29 May 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/facebook-rape-jokes-protest_n_3349319.html

Nigeria MPs outlaw gay marriage.

31 May 2013

Nigerian lawmakers approved Thursday a bill to outlaw gay marriage and crack down on gay rights, including criminalising public displays of affection between same-sex couples.

The House of Representatives unanimously approved the bill which provides for jail terms of up to 14 years for gay marriage.

A gay rights bill has already been approved by the Senate but it was not immediately clear if the laws were identical.

If there are no differences between the two, the bill will now go to the president for his approval.

Under the bill, “persons that entered into a same-gender marriage or civil union contract commit an offence and are jointly liable on conviction to a term of 14 years imprisonment each.”

It also says “any person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organisations or directly or indirectly makes a public show of same-sex amorous relationship commits an offence and shall be liable to a term of 10 years imprisonment.”

Beyond concerns about gay rights in Africa’s most populous nation, some have also questioned whether funding channelled through non-governmental organisations in Nigeria for AIDS treatment would be put in jeopardy by the bill.

http://news.iafrica.com/worldnews/862340.html