OVER 20 African countries are gathered in the resort town of Victoria Falls to deliberate on issues around access to Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) for young people with the aim of finding a lasting solution to teenage pregnancies, gender-based violence, and HIV infections in East and Southern Africa.
By Michael Gwarisa in Victoria Falls
The three day regional symposium which will run up to Thursday, October 13, 2022 has been organized by the UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO under the banner of the Joint UN Regional 2gether 4 SRHR Programme and is set to highlight progress made in the region in advancing SRHR and lessons learnt and also outline strategies and approaches.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Chief Director Public Health in the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), Dr Munyaradzi Dobbie, Health Minister, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga expressed gratitude to the Government of Sweden for providing financial support towards the SRHR programme.
Your steadfast support for sexual and reproductive health and rights in Zimbabwe and the region is appreciated. In Zimbabwe more than $10 million United States Dollars from 2018 to date has been invested in the programme. Your support has resulted in improved access to services. Most crucially was the flexibility that the funding came with, which made it possible for the government to respond to some unanticipated challenges such as cyclone Idai and the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Vice President Chiwenga.
He also commended all government ministries and departments in all the participating UN Agencies – UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO and UNAIDS and civil society organisations for their dedication in ensuring results are met.
“As the Government of Zimbabwe, we remain committed to working with all our funding and technical partners towards ensuring an improved quality of life for our citizens.”
Giving her remarks, the United Nations Population Fund-East and Southern Africa (UNFPA-ESARO) Deputy Regional Director, Chinwe Ogbonna said the symposium should map a forward in as far as future-proofing SRHR programing against shocks such as natural disasters and health emergencies like COVID-19 and others.
“We are here to take stock, we are here to learn and more importantly from this regional flagship program, we now know that there are lots of shocks, there are crises and there is conflict in our region and it very critical for us to look forward and future-proof our programing,” said Ogbonna.
She added that while progress has been made in addressing certain harmful practices, there was still a lot of work needed to address the unfinished business around SRHR in the region.
“The drama and testimonies we have witnessed here amplify the unfinished business in our region. The unfinished business around HIV, Teenage Pregnancy, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and in some of the countries here, Femicide and multi-dimensional forms of inequality and limited access to comprehensive abortion, limited access to Morden contraceptives and age of consent. While we celebrate the successes we have achieved in the past years, it’s very critical for us to then see how we can take those integrated delivery models, those innovative approaches and move forward.”
UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Zimbabwe, His Excellency Edward Kallon expressed his appreciation to the Government of Sweden for its willingness to support the 2Gether4SRHR programme adapt to unforeseen challenges that the country faced during the funding cycle.
“For example, Cyclone Idai in March 2019 cut its victims off from essential supplies and other critical health services. Just one year later, Zimbabwe experienced the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Again, this affected the vulnerable more, limiting access to critical health services and supplies, and causing emotional and economic devastation.
“Funding from 2Gether4SRHR enabled agility in responding to these public health emergencies through strengthening of community systems that supported the most vulnerable members of society, and the health system through emergency procurement of equipment and supplies – demonstrating the humanitarian-development-peace nexus,” His Excellency Kallon said.
He added that Sida funding was instrumental in-service delivery on the integration of HIV, SRHR and GBV at all levels. It facilitated complementarity with other sources of funding including PEPFAR and the Global Fund.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Harleman, head of the Regional SRHR Team of Sweden said, “Sweden has a long and proud history of standing alongside with our partner countries in advancing common interests in support of health equity and social justice. Sweden is an avid supporter of multilateral cooperation. We see integration and regional collaboration as integral to realising a safe and inclusive world that leaves no one behind.
“Sexual Reproductive Health remains a priority for Sweden development cooperation. In 2021, 12.7% of Swedish Official Development Assistance (ODA) was spent on health. Half of this was allocated to SRHR including funding for HIV. We know tremendous progress has been made in eliminating mother to child, transmission of HIV, reduction of AIDS related deaths and new HIV infections across the region as well as reduction of maternal mortality.”
A number of sessions are running concurrently with the Symposium. Session topics include: Expanding access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all through legal and policy reform, Strengthening Health Systems for SRH: Digitization of Primary Health Care, Safeguarding the future: Giving priority to the needs of adolescent and young mothers, Strengthening the capacity of youth-led SRH and HIV networks, Emerging areas for SRHR and emergency preparedness, Engaging men and boys on SRHR, Comprehensive abortion care and Towards the Triple Elimination of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B: Know your epidemic better
The 2gether4SRHR programme was launched in 2018 to fast-track the attainment of the 2030 targets of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, improve the health and well-being for all at all ages, and SDG 5, achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
