Health

The Right to Food and Nutrition Watch 2012 addresses the decision making process on global food and nutrition from this human rights perspective. The question “who decides?” includes the question “who is excluded from decision making?” Food and power are related. It is almost impossible to find one person among the powerful in society and politics worldwide who has not sufficient to eat. The tendency is that exclusion from economic and political decision making goes hand in hand with incidence of hunger and malnutrition.

The School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape is a WHO Collaborating Centre, and has an international reputation as a leading research and teaching institution in Public Health. Its educational and research activities are wide-ranging, with a special focus on health systems research, primary health care, social determinants of health, priority conditions (including TB/HIV and chronic disease) and the implementation of district health systems. The School’s distance learning postgraduate programme, offered through a range of learning media, is unique in Southern Africa.

Effective monitoring of healthcare service delivery and overall performance of the health systems requires functional health information systems capable of producing real time information for decision making. Globally, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has emerged as a critical enabling mechanism to achieve this. This eHealth Strategy for the public health sector in South Africa ushers in a new era of optimism about the capabilities of our health information systems.

The 2012 Progress Report on Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed examines trends in child mortality estimates since 1990, and shows that major reductions have been made in under-five mortality rates in all regions and diverse countries. This has translated into a sharp drop in the estimated number of under-five deaths worldwide. Data released today by UNICEF and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation show that the number of children under the age of five dying globally fell from nearly 12 million in 1990 to an estimated 6.9 million in 2011.

Male and female condoms are currently the only effective dual protection methods against unintended pregnancy and the transmission of STIs and HIV.  In recent years, an important development has been the emergence of new FC products, differing in design and materials, that have the potential to lower cost, improve acceptability and increase choice and options for couples who choose to use FCs as their prevention method.  The purpose of this meeting was to develop strategies, recommendations and guidelines for future female condom (FC) parallel programming. This meeting presented an update on FC product technology, shared experiences and plans for FC programming and reviewed current FC programmes and initiatives that will support FC programming more broadly.

This document aims to summarise the National Strategic Plan for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Women’s Health (MNCWH) in South Africa and the Campaign for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CARMMA).

South Africa’s health system is undergoing a muchneeded strategic review. Both the public and the private sectors are affected. And the role of regulators remains crucial in this changing environment. The Council for Medical Schemes continued to execute its mandate in the financial year under review. By guiding the medical schemes industry into unprecedented stability and performance, Council continued to support e¥orts aimed at strengthening the entire health system of the country.

Health systems strengthening has become a top priority of many global and national health agendas as a way to improve health outcomes. With the global health context becoming increasingly complex, national health systems are beginning to move away from a focus on disease-specific health responses to comprehensive strengthening of health systems. The global community agrees that without a systems approach, population health outcomes will not further improve and health related development goals such as the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015 will not be met.

A critical review of the new NSP response to women’s sexual and reproductive rights The protection and advancement of women’s rights, especially women’s sexual and reproductive rights, are critical aspects of effective responses to HIV. However, a societal context filled with gendered norms and expectations around sex and sexuality severely limits women’s access to and enjoyment of sexual rights and choices, while at the same time, societal expectations of motherhood, compromise women’s rights to make informed reproductive choices.

The AIDS Legal Network (ALN) is a human rights organisation committed to the promotion, protection and realisation of fundamental rights and freedoms of people living with, and affected by, HIV and AIDS through education and training, networking, research, capacity building and advocacy and campaign activities.
We are looking for a TRAINER/FACILITATOR to:

• Develop and implement the organisation’s human rights education and training activities
• Develop and prepare training materials
• Facilitate human rights education and training focusing on HIV-related stigma and discrimination, as well as gender violence and HIV

The candidate should have the following experience: