The report includes a Mothers’ Index, which identifies the best and worst countries to be a mother and child-based on a comprehensive look at child and maternal well-being in 140 countries. To succeed in saving the lives of children under 5, Save the Children recommends that countries: ensure the well-being of mothers; invest in basic, low-cost solutions to save children’s lives; make health care available to the poorest and most vulnerable mothers and children; increase funding and improve strategies to provide basic, effective, lifesaving services to those who most need it.
Equity in Health
State of the World’s Mothers Report
Save the Children Fund , 2007
Status of COVID-19-in East and Southern Africa
Minja C: The East Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC), July 2020
The East Central and Southern Africa Health Community has continued to monitor the status of COVID-19 in Burundi, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe and to support countries mitigate effects of COVID-19. Due to the prevailing restrictions of travel, much has been provided through online discussions and support. The report indicates that the number of reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 and cases under care in the region is increasing, in spite of the context of under-reporting. The authors note that governments wish to open up economies to take care of individual and national economic survival and call for targeted and population interventions for modified social distancing mechanisms and for support for diagnostics, care of recovering cases, contact tracing and surveillance across countries, taking note of the fluid movement of people across borders. Adopting regional collaborative efforts is argued to be cost-efficient.
Steep Registration Fee Limits Access to Aids Conference
A number of Namibian non-governmental organisations will not be represented at the largest-ever AIDS conference, being held in Thailand this month, because of the "prohibitive" registration fee. The conference is being held under the theme 'Access For All'. Sources from Namibian NGOs working with HIV-positive people this week described the US$1 000 registration fee as "prohibitively expensive".
Stephen Lewis: An Envoy on the Brink of No Return
UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis on Sunday criticized rich nations for failing to deliver adequate aid to Africa, CBC News reports. Lewis also recently launched a book titled "Race Against Time." In the book, Lewis criticizes musician Bob Geldof for using the "hype" surrounding the Live 8 concerts in July to allow the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations to promote a "wholly inadequate" aid package for Africa as a "major triumph of international consensus and generosity," the Ottawa Citizen reports.
Stepping Back from the Edge: The Pursuit of Antiretroviral Therapy in Botswana, South Africa and Uganda
This report, from the UNAIDS Best Practice Collection, looks at what is being done to challenge the snail's pace of progress on access to antiretrovirals in three very different African countries: Botswana, South Africa and Uganda. It describes who is taking the initiative at grass-roots level and how they face this daunting task.
still no wto agreement on drug access
Although delegates from 22 World Trade Organization member nations failed to break gridlock on the issue of how to relax patent protection to give developing nations better access to drugs to fight public health epidemics, including HIV/AIDS, a proposal by Brazil may offer a "glimmer of hope" in the talks, Reuters reports. Under the new plan, introduced during a three-day meeting in Tokyo, the World Health Organisation would determine if low-income nations have the infrastructure to manufacture generic versions of drugs.
Strategic Plan for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Women’s Health (MNCWH) and Nutrition in South Africa: 2012 – 2016
Department of Health, South Africa: May 2012
The main goal of South Africa’s new strategic healthcare and nutrition plan for women and children is to reduce by 10% by 2016: the maternal mortality ratio (MMR); the neonatal mortality rate (NMR); the infant mortality rate (IMR); and the child mortality rate. What are the key strategies for the implementation of the priority interventions? These include addressing inequity and social determinants of health; developing a framework for MNCWH and nutrition services; strengthening community-based MNCWH and nutrition interventions; increasing provision of key MNCWH and nutrition interventions at primary health care and district levels; strengthening the capacity of the health system, as well as human resource capacity, to support the provision of these services; and strengthening systems for monitoring and evaluation of outcomes. The plan indentifies a number of factors that can be considered critical for success. Government will have to address the social determinants of health, specifically targeting most under resourced districts, as well as commit to strengthening the country’s health system, with a specific focus on primary health care services. Support from key stakeholders will be crucial, including the National Department of Health, Provincial Departments of Health, developmental partners and civil society. Resource mobilisation should be undertaken, in terms of financial support and human resources and MNCWH and Nutrition capacity should be strengthened at national, provincial, district and sub-district levels.
Sub-Saharan Africa's mothers, newborns, and children: How many lives could be saved with targeted health interventions?
Friberg IK, Kinney MV, Lawn JE, Kerber KJ, Odubanjo MO et al: PLoS Medicine 7(6), 21 June 2010
According to this paper, sub-Saharan Africa is at a critical point for achieving the Millennium Development Goals for maternal and child survival. It urges for strategic action to be taken now to maximise mortality reduction by 2015. It estimates mortality reduction for 42 sub-Saharan African countries if 90% coverage of maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) interventions was achieved – nearly four million African women, newborns and children could be saved each year. The study also undertook a detailed analysis of nine African countries that estimated mortality reductions and additional cost for feasible increases in coverage of selected high-impact MNCH interventions considering three differing health system contexts. It revealed that a 20% coverage increase for selected community-based/outreach interventions would save an estimated 486,000 lives and cost an additional US$1.21 per capita. Increasing the quality of current facility births would save 105,000 lives and cost an additional US$0.54 per capita. The study concludes that functioning health systems require both community-based or outreach services and facility-based care. Maximising mortality impact for Africa's mothers, newborns, and children will depend on using local data to prioritise the most effective mix of interventions, while building a stronger health system.
Sustainable development goals and the relationship to a post-2015 global development framework
Beyond 2015: May 2012
The current over-arching development framework of the MDGs expires in 2015. Any plans for SDGs coming out of Rio+20 must be fully integrated into the global overarching post-2015 development framework, argues Beyond 2015. To develop SDGs and the post-MDG development framework in parallel would be both inefficient and short-sighted, and could lead to a number of negative scenarios. Principles of participation, accountability, equality and non-discrimination must cut across any post-2015 framework to ensure outcomes which are effective, just and sustainable. Principles of Agenda 21 should similarly be embedded throughout. To illustrate this, Beyond 2015 have identified four principles which must be the foundation for any guidance coming out of Rio+20 on a future development framework: holistic, inclusive, equitable and universally applicable. Fundamentally, any global development framework must be based on, and fully ensure, equal enjoyment of all human rights for all people.
Swaziland: Five Year Sex Ban Imposed for Young Women
The Swaziland government has announced a five-year sex ban for young women in a bid to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country. The ban was announced on Sunday evening by the leader of Swaziland's young women, Lungile Ndlovu, who said the elders of the nation had deemed it fitting, AFP reported.