Pretoria, South Africa -21 August 2009- (SAfAIDS)- Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) will next week hold a meeting for government, civil society and the private sector to accelerate the implementation of the Maputo Plan of Action in Malawi

The meeting, which will take place on the 26th and 27th of August, will be held at the Sunbird Lilongwe Hotel from 8:30am to 4:30pm on the first day and 8:30am to 1:00pm on the last day.

According to the Maputo Plan of Action African leaders have a civic responsibility to respond to the sexual and reproductive health needs and rights of their people.

The two-day workshop therefore seeks to identify challenges, share lessons and define actions for accelerating and monitoring progress towards the provision of universal access to sexual and reproductive health rights.

Three years after leaders committed to ensuring that people have access to sexual and reproductive health needs and rights of their people, girls and women in Malawi and the rest of Africa continue to lack control over matters related to their sexuality and sexual health and rights. Sexual and reproductive ill health accounts for almost one-third of the global burden of disease among women of reproductive age.

While sexual and reproductive health, information, education and services should widely be available and affordable for all, too often they remain inaccessible. Sub Saharan Africa, has the highest infant mortality rate and accounts for half of the developing world’s maternal deaths.  
“Also despite the emphasis on integrating HIV with sexual and reproductive health issues, current HIV policies in many countries do not explicitly state the importance of reproductive health rights and neither do they provide guidance on how to mainstream sexual and reproductive rights into existing reproductive and HIV programmes.

“The linkages between HIV policies and programmes and SRHR policies and services need to be reaffirmed. There is an urgent need for political and civil society leaders to be informed about the provisions of the Maputo Plan of Action and develop strategies to accelerate its implementation, and that is the reason for this meeting” SAfAIDS executive director, Mrs Lois Chingandu said.  
A country monitoring taskforce will be established at the end of the two-day workshop whose main function will be to ensure that government, civil society and the private sector will live up to the commitments and recommendation they will make during the workshop.    
The Minister of Health and Child Welfare Professor Moses Chirambo will officiate at the meeting, which will also be attended by United Nations agencies, among others.
ENDS!
For more information on this meeting please contact:
Dominica Mudota-Dhakwa (dominica@safaids.net) or Beatrice Tonhodzayi (beatrice@safaids.org.zw)
You can also call visit the safaids website on www.safaids.net or call +27 123 610 899