Health

I am determined to make wonders in people’s lives through my own life. I am 54 years old, and the councillor for Bulawayo Town Council Ward 12. I pursued my education up to the Ordinary level, and then I started preparing myself for my political career. I first met Gender Links in 2009 in Kadoma, at a workshop on women’s emancipation. I found the event so educational that I pledged to impart the useful information to the entire community. The presentations that were done by Priscilla Maposa impacted positively on my work, and that event marked the genesis of my subsequent encounters with Gender Links.

The Department of Health’s 10 Point Plan adopted last year is already behind schedule, with rising concerns about management, implementation and monitoring capacity. Given this, it is hard to understand the priority given to a national health insurance scheme when so many other fundamentals of health care in South Africa urgently need to be turned around first

International experience suggests, and many experts believe, that the private sector could make a substantial contribution to health care in South Africa . All these factors provide grounds for an urgent national discussion

In this context CDE, in collaboration with the Aurum Institute for Health Research, recently brought together local and international experts to discuss health systems, health funding, and health policy. Participants heard and discussed stories and lessons from other middle-income countries, and from particular parts of the South African health care system.

The main purpose of this report is to respond to this challenge by documenting not only the strengths but also the weaknesses of the private sector and the market conditions under which it operates. It proposes reforms which will allow the private sector to operate more efficiently broaden access to its services and enable it to contribute to the greater and more urgent task which faces policy makers – the rehabilitation of public sector healthcare. The report is based on 10 specially commissioned research papers, consultations and workshops with international health policy experts and meetings with South African health sector stakeholders. The essential message is that reform of private sector healthcare and of the market conditions under which it operates will be a step forward on the long road towards universal access to quality healthcare and not, as the private sector’s critics claim, a backward one.

Rien en Afrique ne tue plus que le cancer. Fait étonnant car l’Afrique souffre de bien d’autres maux, Á  commencer par les guerres civiles, les instabilités politiques, les déplacements des populations, la pandémie du VIH/SIDA. Mais c’est le cancer qui tue le plus, surtout les Africaines. La faute au manque de médecins, Á  l’absence de campagnes de prévention, de structures pour le dépistage, sans compter les rites ancestraux et traditionnels qui s’opposent aux traitements.

Namibia committed herself through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) in 1995 to improve the condition and status of women. This report gives an account of the achievements and challenges faced in the implementation of the BPFA as well as future strategies to address them.

This year’s World Disasters Report focuses on the growing crisis of hunger and malnutrition. Smallholder farmers who produce half the world’s food are among the almost 1 billion people who go to bed hungry every night. Millions of children suffer the irreversible effects of under nutrition. Increasing food insecurity weakens people’s resilience to disasters and disease, and people everywhere are experiencing the increasing volatility of food prices. This report analyses the causes and impacts of such vulnerability at community, national and international levels – during and after emergencies, and from a longer – term perspective. It examines the challenges of the globalised nature of food related vulnerabilities, and the need for a cross-disciplinary approach. The report acknowledges the complexities involved, that the issues of global food security, hunger and malnutrition go to the core of virtually all the major components of the functioning of the international system, from international trade to climate change, from water scarcity to scientific innovation.

All this talks of floods and droughts and climate change leaves many of us worried and confused. Will there be enough water? Who will get it? How can we help? This book answers these and other questions. Based on their work in South Africa, but drawing also on international experience, the contributors present a frank picture of what is happening in the water sector and what we need to do differently if we are to respond adequately to the challenges that climate change brings. Presented in 3 parts – a practical guide, a photo-essay and a series of written essays – the book invites readers to open their eyes and hearts, and to take steps to protect our life giving water, so that the rights of all, human and nature, can be realised.

En 2012, la lèpre est toujours présente Á  Madagascar, même si son taux de prévalence n’est que de 0,82 sur 10 000 habitants. Si cette maladie frappe indistinctement les hommes comme les femmes, elle affecte davantage ces dernières dans la mesure où la société malgache se montre intraitable envers elles. A tel point que certaines vont jusqu’Á  se suicider ou Á  y penser sérieusement.

“Sixteen Days of Peace” is a 12 minute documentary of the campaigns conducted by NGOs in South Africa during the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence following strategic communications training by GL in 2002 and 2003.