Source: The Conversation Africa
The world’s climate is changing. All of us will ultimately be affected by climatic shifts – but some will be hit harder than others.
Source: LeFaso.net
Le Burkina Faso a pris part aux travaux de la cinquantième (50ème) session ordinaire du Conseil des Droits de l’Homme (CDH), avec une délégation nationale, conduite par SEM Dieudonné W. Désiré Sougouri, Ambassadeur, Représentant permanent du Burkina Faso à Genève.
ATTENTION: mentions de violences sexuelles, viols, meurtres
Source: ONU Info
Le Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux droits de l’Homme a publié ce lundi deux rapports sur des évènements extrêmement troublants survenus récemment en République centrafricaine, pouvant être qualifiés de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l’humanité.
SOURCE: THE POINT.
Seedy S.K. Njie, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly has underscored the government's continued commitment to the empowerment of women in the country, saying "if we are really serious and committed about development, we must be serious in gender equality and women's empowerment."
Source: TV5 Monde
En Sierra Leone, l’avortement est interdit sauf si la vie de la femme est en danger. C’est aussi l’un des pays où le taux de mortalité maternelle est l’un des plus élevé au monde. Face à ce constat, le président lui-même s’est engagé à faire bouger les choses. Le gouvernement a approuvé une nouvelle loi pour une “maternité sans risque”, qui sera soumise prochainement au vote du Parlement: légaliser l’avortement, et ainsi révoquer une loi qui remonte à 1861.
Source: Agence Ecofin
Entre l’impact du VIH et de la covid-19, de nombreuses jeunes filles sont privées d’éducation en Afrique. Au sommet de l’UA, 10 pays de la région, 5 agences de l’ONU et d’autres partenaires se sont engagés pour maintenir ces dernières dans les écoles et leur donner une éducation de qualité.
SOURCE: DW
The abortion debate in Africa is going in the opposite direction to the one in the US. Experts say that legislation in countries such as Benin and South Africa is becoming more progressive. But there are exceptions.
SOURCE: The Conversation Africa
Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa have a very high risk of acquiring HIV. The latest global AIDS update report suggests that a staggering six out of seven new infections among 15-19-year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa are among girls.
Entrenched gender inequalities make young women and girls more vulnerable to coercive behaviour that leaves them unable to negotiate safe sex.
But there is a method for adolescent girls and young women to protect themselves from HIV without having to convince a partner to use a condom at the time of sex. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a pill containing antiretroviral drugs that can help prevent HIV. If taken consistently, PrEP can reduce the risk of sexually transmitted HIV infection by about 99%.
HIV prevention medication has been part of HIV prevention efforts since around 2014. Globally, PrEP has contributed to declines in new HIV infections among high-risk populations. But this does not seem to be the case for adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa.
In a recent study, my colleagues and I at the Manicaland Centre for Public Health Research interviewed healthcare providers in eastern Zimbabwe to understand the low uptake of PrEP and what they would recommend to improve it.
We asked 12 healthcare providers about their experiences of making HIV prevention services available to young people. We asked them specifically about PrEP. We also invited the healthcare providers to share their top three recommendations for improving access to PrEP for young women.
This is the first study of its kind to focus on the perspectives of healthcare providers in southern Africa. Considering their perspectives is particularly important. Healthcare providers are not only at the front-line in the delivery of PrEP. They often live in the same community and understand the socio-cultural contexts of their clients. This combination of experiences is valuable and must inform future programming.
Their recommendations point to six actions.
Run PrEP awareness campaigns, specifically at schools, giving adolescent girls and young women information about PrEP and how to access it. The campaigns would also have to debunk myths about PrEP only being for women engaged in sex work – a common myth in the study area – as well as fears about potential side effects. Campaigns targeting adolescent girls and young women must be accompanied by community campaigns. These should encourage parents to talk to their children about HIV prevention methods, including PrEP, and to shift community perceptions about PrEP as a pill that encourages promiscuity.
Involve adolescent girls and young women in the rollout of PrEP. Young women must design, feature in and deliver the awareness campaigns. Young women need role models of peers on PrEP.
Eliminate costs associated with PrEP uptake. PrEP is freely accessible in many sub-Saharan African countries. But getting to the clinic, taking time off work to go to the clinic for refills and monitoring, and getting registered at the clinic may come at a cost. In resource poor settings, these small associated costs can be prohibitive and need to be eliminated, either through reimbursements or through an incentive-based payment system.
Strengthen the human resource capacity of health services to deliver PrEP. PrEP is still relatively new in many sub-Saharan African settings, including Zimbabwe. Although PrEP has been available in Zimbabwe since 2018, it has been limited to certain population groups through demonstration projects. PrEP services to adolescent girls and young women are still limited and in their infancy. A young woman looking for PrEP is therefore unlikely to find specialised and dedicated staff who is ready and available to assist. Investments are needed to make available a cadre of trained prescribers who can deliver PrEP to young women in a professional and timely manner.
Make PrEP services youth and female friendly. Strong gender norms subject many adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa to different forms of social control around their sexuality. The healthcare providers recognised their role in this. Young women fear going to the clinic, worried they might be seen by community members. They also fear the attitudes and indiscretions of healthcare providers, who may disapprove of a young girl’s use of PrEP, and may tell parents that their girl is sexually active. Healthcare workers fully recognise these challenges and call for the delivery of PrEP through sexual and reproductive health hubs that are discreet, youth friendly, and staffed by young and sex-positive healthcare workers. They also recognise that such services must be open outside school hours if they are to reach adolescent girls.
Improve the PrEP pill and its packaging. The pill is big and some people find it uncomfortable to swallow. Some may also experience significant side effects. Its packaging challenges secret PrEP use.
A recent report by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care found young women to have an HIV incidence more than nine times higher than that of their male peers. HIV prevention service planners looking to increase access and uptake of PrEP among adolescent girls and young women in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in the region must take heed of these findings.
Many more actions will of course be needed for the effective rollout of PrEP for adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa.
However, the six actions emerging from our interviews with healthcare workers in Zimbabwe highlight solutions to some key challenges.
Source: Agence Ecofin
Pour davantage impliquer la couche féminine dans la préservation de la biodiversité, WE Africa a mis en place un programme d’un an qui entend donner aux femmes leaders du domaine, les outils pour des actions plus efficaces.
SOURCE: UNFPA
Almost one third of women in developing countries had their first baby while they were still in their teens, a recently released report shows, with nearly half of those new mothers aged 17 and younger - still children themselves.
Source: Spotlight Initiative
Inspector Muna Meah is a Commander in the Liberia National Police Force. For the past seven years, she has investigated cases of violence against women and children and supported survivors to access the help they need. She is the county coordinator for the Women and Children’s Social Protection Centre in Sanniquille, north-central Liberia.
Source: Guineenews
Un point de presse a été organisé ce lundi 4 juillet à la maison commune des journalistes à la Minière dans la commune de Dixinn, en prélude du lancement, le 6 juillet 2022, du chapitre Guinée du Réseau des Femmes Leaders Africaines/African Women Leaders Network (AWLN).
Source: Agence Mauritanienne d'Information
L’Association Mauritanienne pour la Promotion de la Famille, en partenariat avec l’Union Internationale pour l’Organisation de la Famille (région du monde arabe), a organisé, lundi à Nouakchott, un atelier sur les mutilations génitales féminines et l’attitude de la religion par rapport à cette pratique.
SOURCE: New Dawn
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection says it has begun massive community awareness on a toll-free Anti-Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGVB) Call Number in several communities in Montserrado County.
Source: Africanews
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio announced his government had unanimously backed a bill that would decriminalize abortion in the country. He was speaking at the 10th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights, which took place in Freetown, Friday.
SOURCE: UNFPA
Nearly half of all pregnancies, totalling 121 million worldwide each year, are unintended, explains the State of World Population 2022 report, released at a high-level event to discuss unintended pregnancies as a neglected crisis, in Durban, South Africa on 23 June.
Source: ONU Femmes Afrique
Le coup d’envoi de la campagne de dissémination à grande échelle a été donné jeudi 9 juin par le conseiller du Ministre d’Etat, Ministre de l’Entrepreneuriat, des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises, Popol Biabia, en présence du Représentant Résident de ONU Femmes, Adama Moussa, la conseillère du Ministre du Genre, Famille, Enfant, Mme Clémence Mujinga et le Coordinateur National du PADMPME (Projet d’Appui au Développement de Micro, Petites et Moyennes Entreprises), Alexis Mangala.
ATTENTION: Mentions de viols et violences sexuelles
Source: rfi
La décision de la Cour Suprême américaine de révoquer le droit à l’avortement fait réagir jusqu’en Afrique. Sur le continent, l’interruption volontaire de grossesse (IVG) reste interdite dans une grande majorité de pays. C’est le cas en Côte d’Ivoire par exemple, où l’avortement n’est autorisé qu’en cas de danger pour la vie de la mère ou en cas de viol et d’inceste. Une proposition de loi est toutefois en préparation pour libéraliser les IVG, mais ce n’est pas encore gagné.
SOURCE: AFRICANEWS
Days after UNICEF disclosed that 130 million African girls and women live in premature unions, the Novafrica Conference in Lisbon also discusses how to promote Africa's economic development by reducing gender inequality.
Source: Daily Maverick
In Mali, the hashtag #lavieestsacrée (life is sacred) has become the symbol of a revolt against the country’s endemic maternal mortality rates. It first appeared in 2021 after renowned journalist Hawa Séméga died during childbirth.