Public health

As in other countries, South Africa’s healthcare system comprises a network of health facilities providing primary health care, supported by several higher levels of care. Information on individual facilities allows analysis and reflection on how the country’s health services inputs meet the population’s needs in terms of the type, quantity and quality of the services. This information is essential to identify health system strengths and gaps, to assess current and future needs and for planning investments and future services such as the National Health Insurance.

The UN Platform on Social Determinants of Health is an informal mechanism to provide coordinated support to Member States with implementation of the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health. The Platform also advocate s placing the social determinants of health highly on the global development agenda, and fostering coherent action on the social determinants of health. Currently, the platform involves staff from ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO and UNAIDS.

Health Systems Trust is a dynamic, not-for-profit organisation that supports the development of an equitable and comprehensive health system for the provision of quality health care in South and southern Africa.

PURPOSE:
Health Systems Trust wishes to appoint nine facilitators to facilitate improved access to and use of high quality Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH) services at the district level. The incumbent will be appointed to work in the Reducing Maternal and Child Mortality through Strengthening Primary Health Care (RMCH) Programme. This programme focuses on mentoring and supporting district heath management teams to implement interventions for improved maternal and child health outcomes.

All human beings—regardless of age, sex, race or income—are equal in dignity and rights. Yet 222 million women in developing countries are unable to exercise the human right to voluntary family planning.

This flagship report analyzes data and trends to understand who is denied access and why. It examines challenges in expanding access to family planning. And it considers the social and economic impact of family planning as well as the costs and savings of making it available to everyone who needs it.

The report asserts that governments, civil society, health providers and communities have the responsibility to protect the right to family planning for women across the spectrum, including those who are young or unmarried.

This note is by the World Health Organization (WHO) is intended as a discussion paper on the position of health in the post-2015 agenda. This paper focuses on content, identifying a series of issues that need to be addressed in framing future health goals and discussing ways in which Universal Health Coverage might be used as a way of bringing all programmatic interests under an inclusive umbrella and explaining its relationship to the achievement of gains in healthy life expectancy. The purpose of these papers is to provoke discussion rather than present definitive positions. They will be revised and updated as the process evolves.

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.

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.