Health as a Human Right
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http://www.africafocus.org/intro-health.php.
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Talking Points on Health as a Human Right
We All Must Respond to Ebola
Statement by US-Africa Network, September 19, 2014
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Ebola center in Sierra Leone. National and international efforts to stop the spread of the epidemic have been insufficient to contain it. Photo credits: ©EC/ECHO/Cyprien Fabre.
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Recent bulletins on Health
August 3, 2020 Africa/Global: Preventing the Next Pandemic
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/zoo2008.php
“COVID-19 is just one example of the rising trend of diseases –
from Ebola to MERS to West Nile and Rift Valley fevers – caused by
viruses that have jumped from animal hosts into the human
population. … The rising trend in zoonotic diseases is driven by
the degradation of our natural environment – through land
degradation, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction, climate
change, and other stresses.” - Press release from UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) and International Livestock Research Institute
(ILRI), Nairobi, July 6, 2020
July 20, 2020 South Africa: Covid-19 Response Failing; How to Do Better
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/sa2007.php
“Covid-19 is a crisis on a crisis – it is a health crisis on top of existing social, economic and political crises in SA. Every faultline is exposed: those with food security, and those who go hungry; those with jobs and the unemployed; those with water and sanitation and those without; those who drive cars and those in crowded public transport; those in well-resourced schools with small classes and those in overcrowded, under-resourced schools; those who use private health care and those who wait in long queues outside under-resourced rural and township clinics.” - Statement by members of the C19 People’s Coalition Health Task Force
June 8, 2020 Africa/Global: Thinking Post-Covid-19
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/post2006.php
“Calls for debt relief—or more timid debt service moratorium—are
drops in the ocean. Something much more ambitious and radical
should be envisaged. This crisis allows us to think big. … [F]or
these exceptional times, we need exceptional solutions. This virus
does offer Africa an opportunity to exercise agency and embark on a
more robust structural transformation process. Building on the
gains of the last few years and the resilience of its population,
there will probably be no better time to fast-track change.” -
Carlos Lopes, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa
June 8, 2020 USA/Global: Racial Pandemic and Viral Pandemic
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/pan2006.php
The twin pandemics of racism and coronavirus are colliding, in reality and in metaphor. Anti-racism scholar Ibram X. Kendi writes in the Atlantic of “the racial pandemic within the viral pandemic.” And the meme of “America's two deadly viruses” has gone viral on Twitter. But while one is a literal (and new) virus and the other an endemic condition that has persisted over centuries, the scope of each spans the range from local communities to the entire planet.
May 12, 2020 USA/Global: Contesting Health and Workers' Rights
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/rights2005.php
The global Covid-19 pandemic has made clear that the right to
health is not just an aspirational value. Suddenly, it’s a matter
of desperate self-interest for everyone, except, perhaps, those
insulated by enormous wealth. The same is true for the rights of
workers in the United States and worldwide: their work and their
consumer power are indispensable to a global economy facing
recession. The current crisis thus presents an opportunity to
expand the recognition and exercise of these pivotal rights,
accelerating efforts that were already underway before the virus
hit. But all too predictably, these efforts are running up against
stubborn resistance from forces that benefit (or think they
benefit) from the status quo.
April 27, 2020 Africa/Global: Pandemic Mobilization amid High Vulnerability
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/covid19d.php
At a continental level as well as in almost all African countries,
African institutions mobilized quickly in response to the pandemic.
In most countries, the pandemic response so far has been
encouraging in terms of buying time by flattening the curve,
although implementation of lockdowns has been marred by human
rights abuses by security forces and insufficient funding for
support to those already economically vulnerable to loss of income.
A minority of countries, including Tanzania, Burundi, Cameroon, and
Madagascar, seem to be emulating the denial and delay pattern
previously followed by the United States and the United Kingdom.
April 13, 2020 Mozambique: Cumulative Shocks, Local and Global
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/moz2004.php
As of April 10, Mozambique had registered only 20 cases of covid-19, and
was carrying out an active program of screening, testing, and contact
tracing for all entering the country. The success of containment was still
fragile, however. In addition, 10 of the tests were traced to a worker at
the multinational natural gas company Total in Cabo Delgado province, in
the far northeast. In that same province, reminding us that the pandemic
comes on the top of other urgent crises, jihadist insurgents are now
expanding their offensive and extending their attacks inland.
April 2, 2020 Africa: Covid-19, New Africa-Specific Links
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/covid19c.php
This AfricaFocus Bulletin is very short, with no long articles, but only a selection of new links that I think very useful and important to share widely. Many of you have shared previous Bulletins, and I hope that you will also share this (and/or the links you find most useful).
March 26, 2020 Africa/Global: Coronavirus Reflections and Updates
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/covid19b.php
Like the climate crisis and economic inequality, the COVID-19
pandemic may not at first glance seem to be a “foreign policy”
issue. But it powerfully points up the need to forge a global
perspective – and global alliances – without delay. Progressives
must lead the way, and the coronavirus is an immediate opportunity
to change the way we think to always recognize domestic and global
realities as intertwined. Both self-interest and moral values make
this imperative.
March 16, 2020 Africa/Global: Coronavirus Updates
http://www.africafocus.org/docs20/covid19.php
On March 15, President Ramaphosa of South Africa declared
coronavirus to be a national disaster, and a Science magazine report
from Cape Town called the virus a “ticking timebomb” for the African
continent. African countries gained a window of opportunity in which
to hold off the onslaught, thanks to their relative isolation from
international air traffic and their smart preparations based on
experience with Ebola. But it appears this window may now be
closing.
October 28, 2019 Africa/Global: Untapped Potential for Africa Climate Actions
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/clim1910.php
From off-grid solar home systems (SHS) to utility-scale solar and
wind installations, the potential for major advances in use of
renewable energy is growing rapidly on the African continent. If
this potential is materialized at a faster pace, Africa countries
could contribute significantly to mitigating the global climate
crisis. This would also reduce the ongoing damage to the
environmental health of their citizens, whether from kerosene lamps
in rural areas or massive coal pollution in South Africa.
September 12, 2019 South Africa: Spotlight on Gender-based Violence
http://www.africafocus.org/docs19/sa1909b.php
“Our nation is in mourning and pain. Over the past few days, our
country has been deeply traumatised by acts of extreme violence
perpetrated by men against women and children. These acts of
violence have made us doubt the very foundation of our democratic
society, our commitment to human rights and human dignity, to
equality, to peace and to justice. … Violence against women has
become more than a national crisis. It is a crime against our
common humanity.” - President Cyril Ramaphosa, September 5, 2019
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