Dr. John E. Otoo, the Ghana Health Service’s (GHS) Eastern Regional Deputy Director of Public Health, has said the GHS is struggling to reduce or eradicate maternal mortality in the region. In comparison to the 53 recorded maternal deaths during the same period last year, he stated that there had been an increase of one...
Dr. Charity Binka, Executive Director of Women, Media and Change (WOMEC) tasks journalists across West Africa to promote issues on Women, Newborn, Children and Adolescent Wellbeing that would help influence good policies. This was during the WAHO-WNCAW Regional Dissemination Workshop of the “Catalyzing Leadership to Improve Health Outcomes for Women, Adolescents, and Children in West...
Poor women in remote areas are the least likely to receive adequate health care. This is especially true for regions with low numbers of skilled health workers, such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The main factors that prevent women from receiving or seeking care during pregnancy and childbirth are: poverty distance to facilities lack...
The number of cases of sexualized violence and femicide in Africa has risen during the Covid-19 pandemic. Will those in power finally grow aware of the extent of the problem? I slept with a small knife, because I was afraid. I didn’t even think about defending myself, because he was three times as strong as I...
For the better part of 2020, East African countries have been battling to contain the spread of Covid-19 with over 46,633 cases reported across Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda as of September 6. Among them, Kenya and Rwanda account for the larger chunk with 35,103 and 4,349 cases reported in the respective...
Date: Friday, September 4, 2020 Exactly 25 years after the opening of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, its significance is undimmed. In that quarter century we have seen the strength and impact of collective activism grow and have been reminded of the importance of multilateralism and partnership to find common solutions...
Wanting a different life for herself and other girls, Savadye started the Zimbabwean women’s movement Roots Africa seven years ago fighting for, among many things, legislation change to better protect women’s rights in her region. Under the lockdown, Savadye is one of a band of female activists in Africa pushing for stronger laws to protect...
Two years ago, South Africa’s government announced it would scrap taxes on sanitary pads from April of the following year. It was part of its plans to address an issue now referred to as period poverty and for which online and offline protests are frequent in South Africa. Period poverty is simply the inability to...
Urgent, and accelerated action is needed to end female genital mutilation, child marriage, and other “harmful practices” and abuses carried out against women and girls, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), said on Tuesday, in its latest major report on the state of the world’s population. Every year, millions of girls are subjected...
In just six months the COVID-19 pandemic has travelled the world, profoundly testing the resilience of even the most advanced health systems, and causing massive shocks to national economies. It has also deepened systematic and structural racial, ethnic and gender inequities everywhere. As the pandemic hit and countries grappled with how best to address the...
