“Confidence alone does not make peace, but acknowledging rights and confidence do. Failure to recognize these rights creates a sense of injustice; it keeps the embers burning under the ashes.”- Yasser Arafat
Monday 30 September 2019
Head of Health Sasha Stevenson will be participating in the University of Cape Town Forum on National Health Insurance (NHI), working with the Faculty of Health Sciences to develop ideas on making the NHI feasible.
Members of the SECTION27 team will attend the presentation of the Competition Commission’s Final Report of the Health Market Inquiry (HMI). SECTION27 has been involved with the HMI since inception in 2014, we published a factsheet outlining what the inquiry would achieve and brought patient voices to the public hearings which took place in 2016. The final report is expected to make far reaching recommendations on regulation of the private sector and will have an impact on the way in which National Health Insurance is implemented. SECTION27 will host a dialogue at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Business School on 17 October 2019 at 18:00 to unpack the findings in detail. Speakers confirmed to date: Dr Ntuthuko Bhengu, Panel Member of the Health Market Inquiry, Founder, Afrika Biopharma Investments (Pty) Ltd, Dr Eric Buch, Professor, Health Policy and Management, School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria, Dr Jane Goudge (PhD), Director of the Centre for Health Policy, Wits, Umunyana Rugege, Executive Director at SECTION27. Booking now open.
Tuesday 1 October 2019
Executive Director Umunyana Rugege and Attorney Nkululeko Conco will be attending the official signing of the Terms of Reference governing the work of the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum (HSACF) in Pretoria. Executive Director, Umunyana Rugege, will sign the Terms of Reference on behalf of SECTION27, which is one of two civil society members of the HSACF whose members also include the Department of Health (both national and provincial), regulatory bodies, bodies involved in the criminal justice system and bodies of private healthcare funders.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is the secretariat for the HSACF. The SIU recognised the health sector as having a high vulnerability to the manifestation of corrupt activities and exploitation. The HSACF is established in order to have a collaborative multi-stakeholder approach to arrest the effects of corruption in the health sector, review measures that target corruption, investigate instances of corruption and ensure the recovery of funds from corrupt activities. SECTION27 and Corruption Watch continue to encourage the reporting of corruption in the health sector.
Wednesday 2 October – Friday 4 October
Attorney Sheniece Linderboom and Legal Researcher Tendai Mafuma will be attending the Strategic Legal Mechanisms for delivering Social and Economic Justice in Africa conference hosted by Oxfam at University of Nairobi. The conference will bring together strategic litigation practitioners, scholars, activists and policy makers to discuss the use of strategic litigation in Africa as a tool to drive social, political and legal reform, empower communities to influence decisions that affect their lives, and drive access to justice. The delegates will share experiences, perspectives and lessons learnt on the use of legal mechanisms, and other forms of advocacy, to bring about social change.
They will be presenting their joint paper titled ‘Reflections on the role of interveners in strategic litigation in advancing the right to basic education and the right to access to health care services in South Africa’. Tendai Mafuma will also present her paper titled ‘When is strategic litigation successful? The Life Esidimeni case study on mental health rights’.
Wednesday 2 October – 3 Thursday
Community Mobiliser Sifiso Nkala will be in eMpangeni, Bayside to conduct the National Strategic Plan, Sexual violence and Sexual Reproductive and Health Rights training. The intention is to make it easier for each Aids council sector to directly or indirectly respond to HIV/TB and provde the necessary support to health facilities.
Friday 4 October
Sasha Stevenson will be attending a civil society meeting on NHI at SECTION27 that aims to workshop the NHI Bill and discuss the opportunities and the need for civil society input into the Bill.
Spotlight
Don’t get stuck in HIV triumphalism, warns Linda-Gail Bekker
Now is not the time to get stuck in complacency and triumphalism over the gains made in the global HIV/AIDS response, former president of the International AIDS Society prof Linda-Gail Bekker said this week, stressing that “there is still work that needs to be done”.
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