Large-scale social mobilisation, including street protests and parallel activities, is the only thing can save the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) from ending in nothing but frustration, according to activists and analysts. A repeat of the failure of recent conferences to negotiate an international climate change pact seems inevitable, said Cândido Grzybowski, the director general of the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE) and one of the founders of the World Social Forum, the largest global civil society gathering. Grzybowski based his pessimistic outlook on a number of factors, such as the economic/financial crisis in the wealthy nations, combined with the fact that this a year of elections in many of them, including France and the United States, moving international commitments to the bottom of their leaders’ agendas. He also blamed what he calls the limited convening power of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, particularly when it comes to environmental issues. Civil society actions must not be limited to Rio de Janeiro, say activists. The Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment and Development (FBOMS) is planning to promote demonstrations in many other cities around the world, with the aid of the internet and social networks. The Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre will help to coordinate these initiatives, with the participation of representatives of civil society movements like the Indignados (Indignant) movement in Spain and the Occupy movement in the United States.
Governance and participation in health
To further accelerate progress in the run-up to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) deadline in 2015, and to ensure sustained progress beyond this date, civil society argues in this report that openness – especially transparency, accountability and public participation – must be at the heart of the post-2015 development framework. They call on the High-level Panel of Eminent Persons (HLP) to pioneer a high-impact agenda through a series of concrete recommendations to the UN Secretary-General. The recommendations should be guided by the promotion of: (1) an open process for soliciting and responding to the priorities and concerns of the world’s poorest people; (2) open, comprehensive and timely reporting on investments and outcomes in pursuit of the agreed development goals and targets, along with enhanced opportunities for citizen participation; and (3) the establishment of open data platforms to ensure that progress can be transparently tracked, lessons can be learned on a real-time basis and all stakeholders can be held accountable.
The author, on behalf of CIVICUS, expresses deep concerned about certain restrictive aspects of the Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) Bill of 2009, which the Zambian government is planning to introduce in Parliament. Some of the concerns raised by civil society in the 2007 version of the Bill have been addressed, but key provisions of the Bill restrict the independence of NGOs and subject them to excessive and unwarranted controls which serve to impede rather than enable the freedom of association guaranteed by the Constitution of Zambia, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, to which Zambia is a party. If passed in its present form, the Bill will seriously restrict the activities of NGOs. Key areas of concern include problematic registration procedures, excessive government control and unnecessary curbs on independence through forced self-regulation and peer monitoring.
Civil society activists and anti-poverty campaigners from around the world have personally delivered a letter containing recommendations for a breakthrough plan to end poverty and inequality to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. The open letter was signed by more than 120 civil society organisations, including Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), the Feminist Task Force, CIVICUS, End Water Poverty and the International Trade Union Confederation. It contains nine key recommendations, including calls for greater accountability, measures to increase gender equality and reduce social exclusion and the provision of quality affordable public services. GCAP affirmed that signatories to the letter were determined to ensure that the breakthrough plan is developed further and implemented to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The campaign is intended to be extended to all UN member states, as well as to the United Nations Summit, which will be held in September and is expected to produce additional pledges to achieve the MDGs.
This paper uses the concepts of organizational culture and organizational trust to explore the implementation of equity-oriented policies - the Uniform Patient Fee Schedule and Patients' Rights Charter - in two South African district hospitals. The hospitals' implementation approaches were similar in that both primarily understood it to be about revenue generation, that granting fee exemptions was not a major focus, and considerable activity, facility management support, and provincial support was mobilised behind the Uniform Patient Fee Schedule. The hospitals' Patients' Rights Charter paths diverged quite significantly, as Hospital A was more explicit in communicating and implementing the Patients' Rights Charter, while the policy also enjoyed stronger managerial support in Hospital A than Hospital B. Beneath these experiences lie differences in how people's values, decisions and relationships influence health system functioning and in how the nature of policies, culture, trust and power dynamics can combine to create enabling or disabling micro-level implementation environments. Achieving equity in practice requires managers to take account of "unseen" but important factors such as organisational culture and trust, as key aspects of the organisational context that can profoundly influence policies. In addition to putting in place necessary staff and resources, tasks such as relationship management, the negotiation of values and paying careful attention to how policies are practically framed and translated into practice are seen to be necessary to ensure equity aspects are not neglected.
After three decades of often catastrophic results, many cities, regions and countries are closing the book on water privatisation. A quiet citizen revolution is reported to be unfolding as communities across the world reclaim control of their water services to manage this crucial resource in a democratic, equitable and ecological way. Over the last 15 years, 235 cases of water remunicipalisation have been recorded in 37 countries. More than 100 million people have been affected by this global trend, whose pace is accelerating dramatically. From Jakarta to Paris, from Germany to the United States, this book draws lessons from this vibrant movement to reclaim water services. The authors show how remunicipalisation offers opportunities for developing socially desirable, environmentally sustainable and quality water services benefiting present and future generations. The book aims to engage citizens, workers and policy-makers in the experiences, lessons and good practices for returning water to the public sector.
To inform policy makers about the feasibility of facility-based SMS interventions, this national, cross-sectional, cluster sample survey was undertaken in 2012 at 172 public health facilities in Kenya. Outpatient health workers and caregivers of sick children and adult patients were interviewed about personal ownership of mobile phones and use of SMS. The analysis included 219 health workers and 1,177 patients’ respondents (767 caregivers and 410 adult patients). All health workers possessed personal mobile phones and 98.6% used SMS. Among patients’ respondents, 61.2% owned phones and 71.4% of phone owners used SMS. The phone ownership and SMS use was similar between caregivers of sick children and adult patients. Wealthier respondents who were male, more educated, literate and living in urban area were significantly more likely to own a phone and use SMS. Mobile phone ownership and SMS use is ubiquitous among Kenyan health workers in the public sector, the researchers conclude. Some of the disparities on SMS use can be addressed through the modalities of m-Health interventions and enhanced implementation processes while further growth in mobile phone penetration is needed to reduce the ownership gap.
Against the backdrop of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, over 70 African AIDS activists from 21 countries met in Cape Town from 22-24 August to inaugurate the Pan-African HIV/AIDS Treatment Access Movement (PHATAM). PHATAM's co-founders are two of the world's leading AIDS activists, Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South Africa and Milly Katana, lobbying and advocacy officer of the Health Rights Action Group in Uganda and member of Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. PHATAM is dedicated to mobilising communities, political leaders, and all sectors of society to ensure access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, as a fundamental part of comprehensive care for all people with HIV/AIDS in Africa.
This study from Zambia in 2018 examines the sociodemographic and psychosocial factors that are associated with whether parents communicate with their daughters about sexual issues, through structured, face to face interviews with 4343 adolescent girls and 3878 parents. Adolescent girls who felt connected to their parents and those who perceived their parents to be comfortable in communicating about sex were more likely to speak to their parents about sexual issues than those who did not. Girls whose parents used fear-based communication about sexual issues, and those who perceived their parents as being opposed to education about contraception, were less likely to do so. Girls enrolled in school were less likely to communicate with their parents about sex than those out of school. The authors suggest that parents can improve the chances of communicating with their children about sex by conveying non-judgmental attitudes, using open communication styles and neutral messages.
In response to demands by the public represented by Civil Society Organisations, Parliaments have been called upon to be more effective in carrying out their functions or representation, oversight and legislating. Beginning with the Parliament of South Africa in 1994 there has thus been a wave of Parliamentary reforms in the region with different levels of success. Parliaments have instituted changes in their committee systems and in the legislative process to allow greater participations from the public. In seeking to promote health equity and public health, legislatures, through their committees, have sought ways to engage with relevant stakeholders, and other organisations in order to broaden their knowledge base.