Democracy is not just constitutional and legislative rules; it is a culture and practice and adhering by the law and respecting international human rights principles.
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, monarch of Bahrain.
Monday 08 – Wednesday 10 July 2019
SECTION27 is co-hosting a gathering on advancing constitutional, economic, social and equal rights with the WORLD Policy Analysis Centre from UCLA. Executive Director Umunyana Rugege, Heads of Education and Health, Faranaaz Veriava and Sasha Stevenson are attending, moderating and co-chairing sessions at this gathering of 30 jurists, lawyers, activists and academics.
National Strategic Plan advocacy officer, Vuyokazi Gonyela is attending a National Tuberculosis (TB) Advocacy workshop for Civil Society aimed at building the capacity of civil society to collaborate with parliamentarians on TB communication and advocacy and adopting an advocacy plan towards achieving United Nations High Level Meeting TB reduction targets in South Africa.
Tuesday 09 July 2019
Health Attorney, Ektaa Deochand will be speaking at the Global Citizens for Social Justice Programme hosted by the Wits Citizenship and Community Outreach Unit and the Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute (ASRI). The programme aims to capacitate undergraduate and postgraduate leaders who are working in public spaces to advance social justice.
Ektaa will be speaking on a panel discussing Social Justice Issues faced by Poor and Marginalised Communities in South Africa, particularly highlighting the work of SECTION27 in advocating for greater access to healthcare.
Tuesday 09 – Saturday 13 July 2019
Field Researcher Solanga Milambo will conduct school monitoring visits across the Mopani District. He will be meeting with school principals and members of School governing bodies in order to establish the state of textbooks delivery and school infrastructure.
Wednesday 10 July 2019
Budget analyst Daniel McLaren will be at the Reserve Bank to speak about education funding reform at the 2019 Public Economics Winter School convened by Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) and the National Treasury. His presentation aims to answer the question: How are resources and socio-economic background a determinant of educational outcomes in South Africa?
Wednesday 10 – Saturday 13 July 2019
Researcher Thuthukile Mbatha and Regional Fellow Paul Wasswa will be attending the Third Southern African Regional Students and Youth Conference on sexual and reproductive Health (SARSYC) in Lusaka, Zambia.
Under the theme Plan, Prioritise and Prevent, the conference calls on governments and stakeholders to effectively plan for the realisation of young people’s sexual reproductive health rights; to ensure that there is a coordinated response in addressing students and young people’s sexual reproductive challenges and to prioritise key populations amongst the youth.
In Spotlight
Health DG welcomes new guide to National Health Act
SECTION27 recently published the third edition of its National Health Act Guide. South Africa’s Director General of Health MALEBONA PRECIOUS MATSOSO wrote a foreword for the guide – which we have reproduced below. The full guide can be downloaded here.
Tuberculosis in SA: Three graphs that tell the story
By Sean MacDonell and Marcus Low
According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, South Africa continues to have one of the highest burdens of tuberculosis (TB) in the world. The burden of a disease refers to the number of infections and deaths within a population and the associated costs of treatment of a specific disease. Here we attempt to tell the story of the burden of TB on human life using several graphs. As the story of TB cannot be separated from that of HIV, we use estimates from both the WHO TB data portal and the Thembisa mathematical model of HIV in South Africa to examine trends in the data from 2000 to 2017.
You can find more of Spotlight’s graphical storytelling on HIV here.