The decision by United States President Barack Obama to overturn the Bush administration's ban on funding assistance programs which provide abortions or abortion counselling - which caused widespread controversy among HIV/Aids campaigners - has prompted widespread comment across Africa.
Obama issued an executive order on January 23 which reversed the ban. It is formally known as the Mexico City Policy, but more commonly referred to as the "global gag rule." It was first introduced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. President Bill Clinton overturned it, and George W. Bush reinstated it in 2001.
Controversy over the gag rule is rooted in debate over the usefulness of abstinence education programs and women's health worldwide. The Bush administration promoted the "ABC" (Abstinence, Be faithful, always use a Condom) dogma in its international aid projects.
Nothing But Nets, an initiative of the United Nations Foundation, aims to prevent malaria by providing free mosquito nets for children. In this guest blog, Adrianna Logalbo, deputy director of Nothing But Nets, shares her experiences distributing bed nets in Côte d'Ivoire.
Last week, as we celebrated the two-year anniversary of the United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign, one million children in the West African country of Côte d'Ivoire received life-saving bed nets. I had the opportunity, along with 35 United Methodists from the Texas Annual Conference, to witness this incredible effort and report back each day on the success.
On Saturday I met Beatrice, a net recipient, in her home. She greeted us graciously with her young son, Samuel, close by her side, who was shy but intrigued by the visitors. Beatrice had walked to the market on the first day of the campaign, four days earlier, to get her son vaccinated against measles and pick up a free, insecticide-treated bed net. There in her home, hanging over the bed she sleeps in each night with her young son, was a simple bed net that could help save their lives.
From Bellagio, Italy, AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana blogs on a Rockefeller Foundation conference on how to use information technology to improve access to health care.
Coming from Liberia, where we are struggling to rebuild our public health infrastructure after decades of conflict, I'm finding it stimulating to be amongst a rich diversity of academics and health professionals from around the world who are discussing global health systems. The focus is on how increasing access to the Internet and related technologies can be used to improve health care delivery in developing countries – or what is often called, in the ideas being put forth here, the "Global South."
"Making the eHealth Connection: Global Partnerships, Local Solutions" - taking place at a Rockefeller Foundation conference center in the Italian city of Bellagio, north of Milan - has attracted experts: nurses, professors, engineers and doctors from every corner of the globe. It is, the organizers have said, a forum where donors, governments, industries, researchers and civil society are engaged in an effort to raise the profile of health-care practices supported by electronic processes and communications.
Taking up where he left off yesterday, Kenyan blogger Bankelele reports from the opening of a bed net factory in Arusha – helped by the electricity supply brought in for a coffee urn.
In the absence of a reporting area, I go back to my seat next to the coffee urn and power up my laptop to cover the speeches.
11:30 AM : The vice president's motorcade snakes in, leading a train of SUVs carrying aides, security and ambassadors. If the Kenyan government has adopted the Mercedes E- class as the car of choice for dignitaries, here it is definitely the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Sharing power with a coffee urn, Kenyan blogger Bankelele reports from Arusha on the opening of factory in Arusha which will have a significant effect on the health of many Africans. His next entry will be posted tomorrow.
There's a factory launch at the Arusha export processing zone – a joint venture between the multinational, Sumitomo Chemical, and a Tanzanian company to fight malaria. The factory will produce long-lasting treated nets to combat malaria which has been a plague to malaria-infected parts of Africa. It is expected to produce over 10 million nets this year.
We are all set for the ceremony and launch. Present are executives of Sumitomo Chemical, diplomats and the Acumen Fund, all awaiting the arrival of Tanzania’s president, H.E. Jakaya Kikwete. Star power comes from South African musician and UNICEF ambassador Yvonne Chaka Chaka.
In the latest entry in his blog about a massive health drive, Steven Phillips tells of us about the unlikely presence of a navy admiral in landlocked Mali.
DAY 5: How the Malaria World Benefits from an Admiral
It's 6 a.m. and my hotel phone wakes me. Just as well, because the malaria prevention medication I have been taking has been causing graphic nightmares. It's a message that Admiral Tim Ziemer, the coordinator for the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), would like me to join him on a field trip today to witness the Mali integrated Child Health Campaign in action. Having traveled with the Admiral previously in Angola - where ExxonMobil's local company is a major PMI supporter - I jump at this opportunity to view the campaign from his official government perspective.
Steven Phillips tells of the impact that American sports stars have on the campaign to make take life-saving health interventions to the children of Mali.
Day 4: U.S. Sports Stars Suit Up Against Malaria
Ruth Riley led the University of Notre Dame to the women's NCAA Basketball title in 2001. The 6'5" center went on to win Olympic gold with the U.S. women's basketball team in Athens in 2004. More recently she was named MVP in the WNBA finals as she led the Detroit Shock to the WNBA championship in 2003.
The latest instalment in the reflections of Dr. Steven Phillips, ExxonMobil's Medical Director for Global Issues and Projects, on the huge campaign to reach millions of children and adults in Mali with life-saving health interventions. Click here for the complete series.
Day 3: "The Power of "Political Will"
Under the merciless rays of an insistent sun which pierces a perennially brown dust-laden sky, we take our positions as international VIPs in a huge dirt schoolyard on the outskirts of Bamako. We are here for the official launch ceremony for the country's integrated health campaign week, and awaiting Mali's president.
On the second day of a visit to Mali, Dr. Steven Phillips, ExxonMobil's Medical Director for Global Issues and Projects, tells of the logistics of a campaign to get bed nets, which protect people against malaria, to hundreds of thousands of people.
Day 2: From Vietnam to a Mother in Mopti – A Bed Net's Journey to Its Destination
The long-lasting insecticide-treated net (LLIN) is one of the main weapons in Africa's arsenal against malaria. Based on the continent's distribution of the disease, the estimated annual need of sub-Saharan Africa's 700 million population is 60-80 million nets. When properly used in sleeping areas, LLIN's could decrease childhood cases and deaths from malaria by at least 50 percent.
Through this blog, Dr. Steven Phillips, ExxonMobil's Medical Director for Global Issues and Projects, will share his observations from the Republic of Mali, where he is part of the UN Foundation's observation team for the country's largest ever public health event.
From December 13 to 19, Mali is conducting a national integrated child health campaign targeting more than 2.6 million children under five as recipients of five health interventions: measles and polio vaccinations, long-lasting insecticide treated nets, de-worming medication, and vitamin A.
In addition to ExxonMobil, key partners include the Measles Initiative (The United Nations Foundation, WHO, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and the American Red Cross), the Canadian Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies, the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, USAID, CDC, Malaria No More, Nothing But Nets, Major League Soccer, National Basketball Association, and numerous local non-governmental, faith-based organizations, and Malian government agencies.
