SADC MPs want minimum package for SRH in times of emergency |26 May 2023
Members of Parliament from the SADC region attend a Joint Session Members of Standing Committees of the SADC Parliamentary Forum including the one Human and Social Development and Special Programmes (HSDSP) in Johannesburg, South Africa (Photo: Moses Maga
Members of Parliament from the Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes (HSDSP) of the SADC Parliamentary Forum do not want Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) to be neglected during national emergencies.
The lawmakers are from different parts of the SADC region and represent their national parliaments on the Committee, whose mandate is to deal with, inter alia, human and social development issues pertaining to health and combating illicit drug trafficking, HIV/Aids, human resource development, education and professional training.
To safeguard gains painstakingly made on SRH during national emergencies, the MPs are advocating for the integration of the Minimum Initial Service Package for Sexual and Reproductive Health (MISP for SRH) into national emergency, preparedness, recovery and disaster risk, reduction (DRR) policies and plans.
They took the decision following an interaction with Matthias Gakwerere who was the resource person at their Standing Committee’s statutory meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 9, 2023.
Gakwerere sugested the inclusion of disaster management and/or emergency responses into SRH development policies and the inclusion of the MISP into national midwifery, nursing, and doctors’ training curricula.
He called, also, for the mobilisation of resources for the implementation of the national MISP preparedness action plans and the use of evidence to inform and strengthen regional and international commitments while also encouraging cross-country learning and sharing of good practices.
Gakwerere presented a paper on readiness to provide SRH care during emergencies in East and Southern Africa, with a focus on the results of the MISP Readiness Assessments.
He told the Committee that the MISP for SRH is a priority set of life-saving activities to be implemented at the onset of every humanitarian crisis.
“It forms the starting point for SRH programming in humanitarian emergencies and should be sustained and built upon with comprehensive SRH services throughout protracted crises and recovery,” he said.
He outlined the objectives of MISP which include ensuring the health cluster identifies an organisation to lead the MISP for SRH.
He said the MISP seeks to prevent sexual violence and respond to the needs of survivors while also preventing and reducing morbidity and mortality due to HIV and other STIs while preventing maternal and new born morbidity and mortality.
“The MISP also seeks to prevent unintended pregnancies, plan for comprehensive SRH services integrated into primary health care as soon as possible and to ensure that safe abortion care is available, to the full extent of the law, in health centres and hospitals,” he said, adding that UNAids, UNFPA, Unicef, World Health Organisation are stakeholders in the MISP Readiness Assessment (MRA) programme.
According to Gakwerere, the process for SRH preparedness marks a starting point for structured and targeted SRH preparedness work and helps identify key areas that need further investment.
Under the multi-stakeholder process, the MRA requires multi-agency collaboration involving the government, civil society organisations, UN agencies, community-based organisations and the private sector, among other stakeholders.
Gakwerere outlined the key elements of the MRA process which involves identifying the strengths and weaknesses in order to understanding the context.
“The second element is to agree on a joint national MISP action plan including identify sources of financing and then implementing the SRH preparedness action plan with partners monitoring progress,” he said.
According to Gakwerere, the preparedness readiness assessment was in the form of a two-section questionnaire with 58 questions and the overall results showed some strengths and weaknesses in most countries.
The strengths included the existence of a national emergency policy; the existence of a national health preparedness and/or response plans; coordination mechanisms for disaster management and warehouses and storage facilities.
Among the weaknesses were the lack of supportive legislative environment supporting specifically SRH in emergencies.
“Coordination mechanisms rarely focus on preparedness issues but are rather reactive in covering emergencies while lack of comprehensive SRH-specific data collection tools in emergencies and lack of resources earmarked for SRH preparedness, were observed,” he said.
Gakwerere said weaknesses observed in most countries included the lack of access to services for marginalised and underserved groups ; the lack of integration of the MISP in health care training curriculum and the non-availability of systems to provide remote service delivery.
On readiness to provide MISP services, most countries were found lacking confidential and safe spaces within the health facilities with poor availability of supplies and commodities for clean delivery and immediate newborn care where access to a health facility was not possible or was unreliable.
“The process helped in the understanding of the national emergency and preparedness policy landscape and created an advocacy agenda towards SRH in emergencies as well as creating a collaboration platform between health and DRR,” he said, adding that it highlighted the need to work across the humanitarian-development nexus.
Gakwerere drew attention to lessons some countries learnt from the MRA process with Burundi encouraging the involvment of the National Platform for Disaster Management.
In Lesotho the DMA (Disaster Management Authority) is open to considering SRH and to better operationalise their health desk, while in the DRC the involvement of the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has helped raise awareness on the MISP.
In Tanzania the process helped initiate a conversation and partnership with the disaster management department to see how the MISP can be integrated into their policies while in Angola the process was approved by the executive secretariat of the National Commission of Civil Protection.
The chairperson of the Standing Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programmes, Honourable Rosie Bistoquet, urged parliamentarians to join hands and purposely pursue the agenda of equitable, inclusive and sustainable human-centred socio-economic development of the SADC region.
Moses Magadza
