Week Ahead 23 – 27 September 2019

“The revolution will be no re-run brothers. The revolution will be live.”- American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author, Gil Scott Heron

Monday 23 – Friday 27 September

Every September, the Member States of the United Nations meet at the General Assembly in New York to discuss the critical issues of global concern. This year, in addition to the general debate, world leaders will participate in a series of summits and high-level meetings to boost action on climate change and accelerate progress on sustainable development, aimed at securing healthy, peaceful and prosperous lives for all.

SECTION27 Executive Director Umunyana Rugege, Head of health Sasha Stevenson and National Strategic Plan Advocacy Officer, Vuyokazi Gonyela will be attending meetings on the side lines of the High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage.

Under the theme “Universal Health Coverage: Moving Together to Build a Healthier World,” the President of the General Assembly is convening the first-ever high-level meeting of the General Assembly on universal health coverage, to launch new efforts to provide access for all to affordable, inclusive and resilient health systems. Our team will be sending summaries of the discussions at meetings attended at the end of each day.

The communications team at Section27 will be working hand-in-hand with the communications team at Global Health Strategies running twitter polls for the duration of this week to assess the public perceptions on safe abortion rights. This campaign is a build up to International Safe Abortion Day that will be observed on the 28 September 2019. In South Africa, the laws on safe abortion rights are amongst the most progressive in the world. Through this campaign we hope to discover whether public perceptions on safe abortions rights are in touch with the legal prescripts that provide for the women’s sexual and reproductive health rights and therefore we will be uncovering what the public misconceptions are on the matter.

Wednesday 25 September

Budget Analyst Daiel McLaren will attend a meeting of the Budget Justice Coalition Secretariat on Wednesday to discuss plans for an anti-austerity campaign, ahead of the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement, scheduled for 30 October 2019.

Community Mobiliser Sifiso Nkala will be visiting Piet Retief correctional centre, in order to establish a relationship with the inmates and assist them to understand and fight HIV/TB effectively.

Friday 27 September

Attorney Samantha Brener and Danel McLaren will attend a round table discussion on open contracting and public procurement, with the aim of identifying opportunities for strategic partnerships with like-minded organisations.