*    Industrial development not possible with low life expectancy & high disease prevalence cautions Africa Public Health Alliance  - In response to Summit Theme of Industrial Development for Africa.
*    Calls for next AU Summit to address Public Health financing & development.
*    Congratulates Social Affairs Commission on delivering Africa Health Strategy.
*    Calls on AU member States to meet AU Abuja pledge to allocate 15% of national budgets to health as basis for funding health strategy.
*    Calls on AU Social and Economic Commissions to collaborate on developing & implementing Africa health finance & development plan.

In a call to African leaders meeting for the 10th Ordinary Summit of the AU to invest in health as a prerequisite for industrial development, the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance “15% Now!” Campaign has cautioned that Africa’s aspirations for industrial development will not be realised without sustainable health financing and development. The leaders will be meeting in Addis Ababa from 31st January to February 2nd.
Speaking in Addis, APHRA “15% Now!” Campaign Coordinator Rotimi Sankore stated:

“Industrial development in Africa is unrealisable with low healthy life expectancy in all of Africa’s major countries at between 35 years and 45 years. The significant exception being except Egypt. In Ethiopia and Nigeria its 42 years for women and 41 years for men respectively. In Kenya its 45 years and 44 years. In South Africa 45 years and 43 years and in DRC its 39 and 35 years respectively.  Egypt has a healthy life expectancy of 58 and 60 years respectively for women and men.  In at least half of Africa’s countries hit by high disease prevalence or conflict, healthy life expectancy is as low as 30 to 35 years. Compared to the G8 Countries, Scandinavian countries or even mid-income countries like Cuba where healthy life expectancy is consistently between 67 and 75 years, most of Africa’s workforce starts to die off when they should be at their productive peak.”[1]

He underlined that “Not surprisingly Africa has been loosing an estimated 8 million lives a year over the last 5 years to preventable, treatable and manageable diseases and health conditions mainly Malaria, HIV, TB, Maternal and Child Mortality. The non-disease indicators such as maternal death are truly shocking with women in almost half of African countries suffering a maternal death risk of between 1 in 7 and 1 in 200 compared to a risk of between 1 in 11,000 and 1 in 47,000 in safer countries.”

The APHRA 15% Now Campaign coordinator emphasised that “although lack of sustainable financing to ensure viable Public Health systems is the key reason for Africa’s health tragedy, major North American and European countries have also undermined African development by under investing in training of their own health workers and professionals and poaching Africans to subsidise their health systems. They must address this hypocrisy, while African countries must also address the poor working conditions that push our health workforce abroad. A middle income country like Cuba has demonstrated to both the developed and developing countries that it is possible for all countries to locally train adequate numbers of and even export health workers ”

Sankore congratulated the outgoing Chair of the AU Commission Professor Alpha Konare, the Social Affairs Commissioner Advocate Bernice Gawanas and her team for producing an Africa Health Strategy and other thematic plans, including the Plan on HIV, TB, and Malaria, the African Pharmaceutical Plan, and the Maputo Plan of Action on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights and called on African governments to ensure the plans are funded by meeting the Abuja pledge by AU member states to allocate 15% or more of national budgets to health. He especially called on member states to fully adopt and fund the Maputo plan, as Reproductive Health is pivotal to reducing HIV and TB prevalence and also reducing Maternal and Child Mortality. 

“A crucial first step towards this must be for the Social and Economic Commissions to work on developing a plan for sustainable health financing and development in collaboration with civil society, and for the next summit to address this key issue without which African social and economic development is impossible.”

ENDS
Support the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance “15% Now!” campaign for sustainable health financing and development in Africa - www.africa15percentcampaign.org

For Further Information Please Contact: 
In Addis: +251 913063962
Int. office:  +44 207 2262933; Or Africa Office +234 1 4925568,
email: media[at]africapublichealth.org.
=======================================APHRA – “15% Now!” Campaign, Background

The Africa Public Health Rights Alliance [and the “15% Now!” campaign] launched on December 10 2006 - International Human Rights Day - is the first to articulate Public Health for Africa as a Rights and Development issue across the continent and beyond. It brings together actors from various key sectors of civil society. 
 
The Campaign is based on the premise that “we all have to be alive and well to exercise any other rights in any meaningful way” and therefore that Right to Health and to Healthcare is arguably the most crucial right of all as articulated by both the constitution of the World Health Organisation and Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 
 
Current social development and health indicators from international and African institutions show that over 8 million African lives are lost annually to preventable, treatable and manageable health conditions and diseases mainly - Child Mortality, Maternal Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB. 
Any loss of life to disease is bad enough. The annual loss of populations equivalent to entire African countries - and over a few years greater than the losses from all modern day global wars and conflicts combined is both unacceptable and unsustainable, and brings Africa closer to the slippery slope to collapse of society and extinction. Public Health is not realisable without adequate and sustainable health financing. Meeting the Abuja 2001 by African leaders to allocate 15% or more of annual budgets to health is crucial to Public Health in Africa. Yet this pledge remains largely unmet with just two countries, Botswana and Seychelles demonstrating their commitment to the 15% pledge.

The key objective of the Alliance is to engage the African Union, sub-Regional Economic Communities such as the East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) etc, their institutions / member countries, and the African public towards: 1) Promoting greater awareness and understanding of African Health Issues and; 2) Achievement of Health based MDG's and Universal Access Targets for Prevention, Treatment and Care; 3) Adopting Comprehensive Health Policies based on a Public Health Rights and Development philosophy - and mobilising and committing resources for sustainable implementation of health policies - including through meeting the 15% pledge.
 
The Alliance will also engage global stake-holders and actors including donors, the UN, EU and their institutions, World Bank, IMF, and international Non-governmental Institutions and organisations especially those concerned with health, social and economic development.

*Partners of the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance and the “15% Now!” Campaign are:
 Honorary Chair: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner
♣Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), Uganda,
♣Africa Health Research Organization,
♣Africa Internally Displaced Persons Voice (Africa IDP Voice),
♣African Network of Adolescents and Youth in Population and Development (AfriYAN)
♣African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV and AIDS (ANERELA+),
♣African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)
♣Centre for Research, Education and Development of Rights in Africa (CREDO-Africa),
♣Coalition of African Parliamentarians Against HIV/AIDS (CAPAH)
♣Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre – CISLAC Nigeria,
♣Cross-of Ministries International Uganda (CGMI),
♣Development Alternatives With Women for New Era (DAWN-Africa),
♣Friends of the Global Fund Africa
♣Global Aids Alliance
♣International Refugee Rights Initiative
♣Institute for Democracy in South Africa – Governance & Aids Prog (IDASA)
♣Kenya Health Rights Advocacy Network (KHRAN),
♣KIGEZI Healthcare Foundation, Uganda ,
♣Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA)
♣Oeuvre de Charité et Développement de LEMBA (OCDL ongd/asbl) - DRC,
♣POSITIVE-Generation (Cameroon),
♣Positive Women’s Network, South Africa ,
♣Physicians for Human Rights (PHR),
♣RESULTS,
♣Santayalla Support Society (Togo),
♣Society for Women and AIDS in Africa – Southern Africa (SWAA Mozambique),
♣Southern Africa HIV & AIDS Dissemination Services (Safaids),
♣Southern and East African Alliance of Parliamentary Committees on Health and HIV/AIDS (SEAPACOH)
♣Stop TB and HIV/AIDS-The Gambia,
♣Tbaction Kenya,
♣Treatment Action Campaign (TAC),
♣Tuberculosis National League (Cameroon),
♣Women Advocates and Research Documentation Centre (WARDC),
♣World Aids Campaign (WAC),
♣Zimbabwe College of Public Health Physicians

[1] Statistics from WHO, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, World Bank