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groups; develop a communication strategy to provide information to the masses, e.g. through social media. The next meeting was set to take place in Namibia to involve SADC organs based in the country as well as to table it at the SADC Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (SADC-CNGO) meeting during the SADC Heads of State meeting in South Africa in August.
The Food Security Shared Framework
(FSSF)
The FSSF highlighted the passing of the resolution on the protection of sacred natural sites and territories. This level of advocacy was possible because of OSF funding and the Gaia Foundation’s concerted efforts to connect the growing network of African Earth Jurisprudence practitioners into global networks for solidarity. OSISA, in collaboration with Human Rights Initiative (HRI), had been funding the Gaia foundation for the past two years under the FSSF portfolio to strengthen and grow the African regional earth jurisprudence (sometimes referred to as Earth Law) movement. The programme supports communities to access and revive their ecological knowledge and practices, taking back control of their food systems. It also looks to secure legal recognition for customary governance systems.
The African Biodiversity Network (ABN), which the Gaia Foundation is part of, called for the designation of no-go- zones for mining to protect the integrity of key ecological systems, such as water sources and sites that are key to maintaining the wild variety of cultivated crops (in other words source of seeds). Therefore, the passing of the resolution on the Protection of Sacred Natural Sites and Territories provided yet another legal instrument to allow communities in the continent to hold both the private sector and state accountable.
Access to Health Programmes
The work on health financing in Zimbabwe has gathered momentum. The Community Working Group for Health (CWGH) has been very vocal in advocating for increased budget allocation, efficiency in utilising allocated budgets, and developing and adopting innovative health financing mechanisms in Zimbabwe.
In the last quarter of 2017, CWGH spearheaded community consultations to inform the state budget and ensure the development of a pro-people budget, which would effectively deliver health services to the population. The organisation synthesised all input from the communities and developed a budget position paper to influence the health budget allocation in 2018. CWGH was pivotal in advocating for increased resource allocation to the health sector, specifically for Abacavir. Zimbabwe was facing serious shortages of Abacavir, a second-line Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) regimen resulting in severe health and financial consequences for Zimbabweans who are on this regimen. CWGH developed a community and CSO campaign which successfully pushed the Government to address the drug shortage as a matter of urgency.
Through our work with Citizen Health Watch, Zimbabwe had its first patient summit where communities had the opportunity to engage with politicians, parliamentarians, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance regarding maternal health governance issues, with specific reference to poor service delivery, maternal health budgets and inefficiencies in the utilisation of resources within the sector.
In Mozambique, the work on health governance implemented by NAMATI has started to take shape. NAMATI advocacy initiatives achieved the following gains: the national strategy for quality and humanisation of health services was approved in June 2017 following years of advocacy from NAMATI. The policy sought to put people at the centre of health care, push for health as a human right and ensure equitable access to health services. Finally, in collaboration with the government and I-TECH, NAMATI started developing a mandatory comprehensive pre-service right to health training curriculum for health workers.
Book launch: Towards Democratic
Developmental States in Southern Africa
The ESJ Programme officially launched the book Towards Democratic Developmental States in Southern Africa at the Southern African Peoples Solidarity Network (SAPSN) People’s Summit in August 2017. Throughout the region, civil society organisations, think tanks and policymakers
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