Latest Equinet Updates

EQUINET will be holding a Workshop on Participatory Methods for for research and training for a people centred health system in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, March 1-4, 2006. TARSC and IHRDC under the EQUINET umbrella and with support from CHESSORE have developed a toolkit of materials on participatory reflection and action (PRA) methods for research and training for a people centred health system. The materials provide information on areas for strengthening community voice and roles in health systems and introduce and provide examples of participatory approaches for training and research that supports this. EQUINEt will also be providing some small grants to support research and training using PRA methods for those who have completed the course.

Those interested in this area of training please contact us at admin@equinetafrica.org

This paper presents the current situation and projected trends related to biodiversity and genetic resources in east and southern Africa (ESA), the implications for the wellbeing of current and future generations of these trends, and the policy choices and alternatives to respond to these trends and the factors that influence policy design and uptake of choices. The biodiversity, genetic diversity of plants, animals and forests in ESA countries are declining at alarming rates, risking the health and wellbeing of populations in the region. Losses of biodiversity and genetic resources have led to poorer diets, poorer living conditions, encroachment on areas with animal populations and an erosion of wild foods and medicinal plants that raise the risk of chronic and zoonotic diseases and pandemics. Current policies have not reversed these trends, nor met the targets of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD). The authors argue that this calls for an urgent paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agro-ecological systems and a one health approach, that recognise the complex, intergenerational interconnections between human and animal health, plants and a shared environment. The authors call for a movement to defend genetic diversity as a common good, not something that can be extracted and privately profited from.

This paper presents the current situation and projected trends related to water in east and southern Africa (ESA), the implications for the wellbeing of current and future generations of these trends, and the policy choices and alternatives to respond to these trends and the factors that influence policy design and uptake of choices. Maldistribution and water scarcity and stress are predicted to intensify in coming decades. Southern countries will become significantly drier and east Africa will have higher rainfall. Climate change will amplify existing variability but may be less critical than growing demand for water. A growing, urbanised population, expanded enterprise and agriculture will deplete and can pollute water resources, with lowest income households least served. Water scarcity contributes to ill health, food insecurity, poverty and increases women’s burdens. There is a potential for vicious or virtuous cycles between these impacts and water resources, depending on the policy choices made. Inequality and stress is not inevitable. There is potentially adequate water to meet the basic needs of all in the region and for sustaining ecosystems if managed through co-operation, paying attention to equity, interdependence and long-term outcomes. The dividends from investments in water systems thus need to be made more visible as well as the harms of competitive, short term choices.

A report released by HEPS Uganda and partner organisations in the Uganda Health Equity Network (UHEN) entitled ‘Right to Health: A Civil Society Perspective on the 12th Annual Report of the Uganda Human Rights Commission’, has criticised Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) for taking a narrow approach in reporting on the status of the Right to Health in Uganda. Noting that the report is a key tool and an opportunity to inform Parliament on the state of the Right to Health in Uganda, the civil society organisations are concerned that the Uganda Human Rights Commission’s silence on the key determinants of health and the country’s emerging public health challenges suggests that it is not doing enough to fulfil its mandate of promoting and monitoring human rights in the country. The HEPS/UHEN report, analysing the Commission’s most recent report to Parliament, points out that UHRC’s report inexplicably does not report the impact on health of trade, the proposed health insurance scheme, climate change, urbanisation, environmental degradation and similar socioeconomic determinants of health.