PAI's Rosemarie Muganda-Onyando Presents at Conference in Abuja, Nigeria

PAI consultant Rosemarie Muganda-Onyando, based in Nairobi, Kenya, traveled to Abuja, Nigeria last month to attend a conference organized by the African Public Health and Rights Alliance (APHRA) entitled, “Pan-African Civil Society – Health Development & Financing – Strategy Development Conference.”

In her presentation to the conference, Ms. Muganda-Onyando focused on the need for civil society organizations (CSOs) to understand local, regional and international processes involved in health care financing for sexual and reproductive health in order to be most effective. She also highlighted the media as a potential partner for CSOs in Africa to help publicize key reproductive health issues and the need for CSOs to develop their advocacy skills in order to enact positive policies and ensure that parliamentarians understand the implications of matching policy priorities with national budgets. The capacity of CSOs must be developed in order for them to mount successful advocacy campaigns in Africa. There is a long way to go to mobilize all these groups, but this conference showed how dedicated these groups are to effecting positive change in their local communities.

One example of the passion and dedication that these groups are putting into advocating for sexual and reproductive health in their local communities is the Africa Public Health Alliance’s “15% Now!” Campaign. This campaign calls on African Heads of State and government to restate their commitment to the Abuja 15% pledge – a pledge to allocate at least 15% of national budgets to health - and increase overall per capita expenditure on health at the next AU Summit.