Africa - Parliamentarians for Women's Health

Parliamentarians for Women’s Health is a groundbreaking initiative in East and southern Africa to strengthen parliamentarians’ efforts to improve women’s and girls’ access to health services, specifically HIV and AIDS treatment, prevention, care and counseling.

The three-year project (2005 to 2007) works with a group of select parliamentarians in four countries – Botswana, Kenya, Namibia and Tanzania – to:

Increase communication and links between parliamentarians and civil society, especially with organizations of HIV-positive women.
Convene national and regional workshops for the purpose of increasing parliamentarians’ awareness of women’s health care needs and the economic and political barriers in their countries.
Provide technical assistance for capacity building in areas of importance to the parliamentarians, such as working with the media, devising budgets that support women’s health, and researching health-related legislation nationally, regionally and internationally.

Why Women's Health?

HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases continue to devastate countries in many parts of Africa and worldwide.
In many parts of Africa, women’s and girls’ health needs are woefully underserved, especially when it comes to prevention and care of HIV and AIDS: Nearly 60 percent of women in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV.
Current efforts to increase women’s and girls’ access to health services are falling short of these immediate needs.
Underlying economic, political, social and cultural constraints continue to impede women’s and girls’ access to health services.

Why Parliamentarians?

Political will and leadership are fundamental to improving women’s access to health services. Efforts to increase women’s access to health services have fallen short in many developing countries because of underlying economic, political, social and cultural constraints. Parliamentarians are well-placed to promote gender sensitive health policies, whether through legislative mandates, acting as public role models and spokespersons for gender equality and public openness about HIV and AIDS, or supporting development of a sustainable national health infrastructure.

In Uganda, parliamentarians made a significant contribution to the fight against HIV and AIDS by establishing a parliamentary HIV/AIDS committee, which helped to mobilize leadership. The parliamentarians also helped reduce stigma by speaking openly about the epidemic and embracing people who were living with HIV/AIDS.

The Southern African Development Committee (SADC) Parliamentary Forum already has initiated activity on HIV and AIDS by establishing specific recommendations for members and then monitoring which members have taken the agreed-upon steps, using peer pressure to encourage action.