Global Goals, Local Action Advancing Homegrown Solutions for Girls and Women Through Regional Advocacy Caucuses Acknowledgements
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GLOBAL GOALS, LOCAL ACTION Advancing homegrown solutions for girls and women through regional advocacy caucuses Acknowledgements This report was authored by Ashley Bennett, PATH with contributions from Lippi Doshi, Kristy Kade, Kristen Kelleher, and Kimberly Whipkey, PATH; Susan Papp and Savannah Russo, Women Deliver; as well as the organizations listed below. Elige Red de Jóvenes Hivos Southern Africa HACEY Health Initiative RODA-Parents in Action Asia Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Rutgers Pakistan White Ribbon Alliance Uganda Cameroon Agenda for Sustainable Development For more information, please contact Ashley Bennett at [email protected]. PATH, Women Deliver. Global Goals, Local Action: Advancing Homegrown Solutions for Girls and Women Through Regional Advocacy Caucuses. Seattle: PATH; 2016. PATH is the leader in global health innovation. An international nonprofit organization, we save lives and improve health, especially among women and children. We accelerate innovation across five platforms—vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and system and service innovations—that harness our entrepreneurial insight, scientific and public health expertise, and passion for health equity. By mobilizing partners around the world, we take innovation to scale, working alongside countries primarily in Africa and Asia to tackle their greatest health needs. Together, we deliver measurable results that disrupt the cycle of poor health. Learn more at www.path.org. Women Deliver is a leading global advocate for girls’ and women’s health, rights, and wellbeing. Women Deliver brings together diverse voices and interests to drive progress, particularly in maternal, sexual, and reproductive health and rights. It builds capacity, shares solutions, and forges partnerships, together creating coalitions, communication, and action that spark political commitment and investment in girls and women. Women Deliver believes that when the world invests in girls and women, everybody wins. Individual caucus reports linked to throughout this document were developed solely by each caucus organizer, with out the input of PATH or Women Deliver. Copyright © 2016, PATH. All rights reserved. Cover photos (left to right): PATH/Katrina Peach, PATH/Glenn Austin, PATH/Gabe Bienczycki All other photos: PATH/Michael Thomas 2 GLOBAL GOALS, LOCAL ACTION Regional Advocacy Caucuses: Advancing health and wellbeing for girls and women in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) era At the 2016 Women Deliver 4th Global Conference, from multiple sectors must come together in PATH and Women Deliver sponsored eight regional partnership with regional governing bodies and advocacy caucuses to spur collective, local action national governments to hold each other accountable to improve the health, rights, and wellbeing of for commitments made and progress toward set girls and women around the world. Each caucus objectives. was designed and led by a local nongovernmental organization and included a diverse mix of civil The caucuses provided a forum for dialogue and society leaders, parliamentarians, ministry officials, collective strategic planning on a variety of regional media representatives, and youth advocates. The priorities, from ending child marriage and ensuring focus of each gathering was to explore issues and safe childbirth rights to promoting the sexual and set priorities for how to elevate the needs of girls reproductive rights of youth and adolescents, among and women in regional and national plans aimed at others. Through vibrant discussion and exchange, fulfilling the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s caucus participants identified steps to put the global and Adolescents Health, achieving the Sustainable goals into practice in their regional context and set Development Goals (SDGs), and realizing other global localized agendas and plans of action. The caucuses commitments. represent a step forward in generating momentum for policies and actions in the spirit of the SDGs. Their To make the SDGs a reality and to achieve global goals notable outcomes will help catalyze a new era of for women and girls, broad coalitions of stakeholders health and wellbeing for girls and women. A selection of caucus outcomes • Central Africa: Issued a Call to Action for Universal Access to Sexuality Education, which several country parliamentarians promised to fulfill. • Latin America and the Caribbean: Adopted a new pact on the health, sexual rights, and empowerment of girls and young women in the region containing commitments from regional political leaders. • Southern and Western Asia: Agreed on a shared advocacy priority on the Regional Action Plan to End Child Marriages in South Asia and created a strategy to see it implemented at the upcoming South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meeting. • Southeast Asia and Pacific: Issued a call to action aimed at regional policymakers to ensure that the sexual rights of young people and women are respected, protected, and fulfilled. • Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Generated commitments from parliamentarians in four countries to add the issue of human rights and dignity in childbirth to each of their legislative agendas. • Eastern Africa: Resolved to work with national governments and regional bodies to institutionalize accountability mechanisms in programs and policies that track progress for girls and women against stated public commitments. • Southern Africa: Generated plans for a new youth advocacy forum on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to facilitate youth-led advocacy in the region. • Western Africa: Finalized a written commitment to collectively develop a model national strategy for SRHR that could be adapted by countries throughout the region, and created a communications platform on social media to drive advocacy around accountability for the SDGs. ADVANCING HOMEGROWN SOLUTIONS FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN THROUGH REGIONAL ADVOCACY CAUCUSES 3 Regions represented at the caucuses* Eastern Africa: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Southern and Western Asia: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Libya, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Mayotte, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Iraq, Kuwait, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, Yemen Western Africa: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Albania, Armenia, Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea- Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Saint Helena, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Republic of Tunisia, Western Sahara Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, State of Palestine, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Central Africa: Angola, Cameroon, Central African Ukraine, Uzbekistan Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, São Tomé and Latin America and the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua Principe and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Brazil, Caribbean Southern Africa: Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Netherlands, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Zambia, Zimbabwe Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Southeast Asia and Pacific: Brunei Darussalam, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Cambodia, China, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Indonesia, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated Rico, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint States of), Mongolia, Myanmar, New Caledonia, Vincent and the Grenadines, Sint Maarten (Dutch Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papa New Guinea, part), Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Vietnam * Countries were divided into regions based on geography, World Bank regional groupings, and expected attendance levels. Country names and spelling taken from http://www.un.org/en/members. 4 GLOBAL GOALS, LOCAL ACTION “It’s important to listen to the people, know their problems and address their needs… Governments should be accountable to citizens.” Hon. Sarah Opendi, State Minister for Primary Health Care, Uganda Participants at the Eastern Europe and Central Asia caucus. ADVANCING HOMEGROWN SOLUTIONS FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN THROUGH REGIONAL ADVOCACY CAUCUSES 5 Central Africa: Universal access to comprehensive sexuality education Caucus by the numbers • 32 participants from 10 countries • Policymakers in attendance: - Hon. Pierre Edumbadumba, Member of Parliament, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - Hon. Marie Rose Nguini Effa, Member of Parliament, Cameroon • Key outcomes: - Call to Action for Universal Access to Comprehensive Sexuality Education developed and adopted. - Youth leaders and civil society organizations from Cameroon, Chad, Congo, and DRC committed to lead advocacy campaigns on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in their respective countries. Parliamentarians from