Reducing the Burden of Care on Women and Girls: Our Collective Responsibility
It is said, 'If you don’t climb the mountain, you can’t view the plain.' The workshop for Members of Parliament in Eastern Africa that took place from 17th to 19th May in Kenya proved to be a process of climbing a tall mountain made up of many 'policy gap hurdles'.
Policy gaps identified include Home Based Care policies that do not take into account the situation of caregivers, most of whom are women and girls; it also revealed the gaps that existed between the activities of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and those of Members of Parliament and more importantly, it revealed the need for the actors in the two regional blocs (Southern and Eastern Africa) holding the dubious first and second positions, as regards HIV prevalence globally, to work together.
At the peak of the mountain, participants were able to view clearly the plain: what MPs and CSOs as stakeholders need to do as outlined in the communiqué that was signed at the end of the workshop.
More about the Workshop
VSO Jitolee organised a 3 day workshop, 17th - 19th April, for members of parliament from the East African Legislative assembly (EALA) and Kenya Women Parliamentary Association (KEWOPA), to discuss ‘Care and Support’ issues for HIV and AIDS.
12 MPs, including the Kenya Minister for Gender, Children and Social Development, Hon. Dr. Naomi Shaban, EGH, MP, who was also the chief guest of the workshop, participated. The 2 key objectives of the workshop were to discuss the situation of Caregivers, most of whom are women, girls and older people and to agree on mechanisms of working together for more effective policies.
Shared learning
The workshop drew learnings from VSO’s RAISA programme which has been bringing parliamentarians from SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) to ensure that they adopted policies that were responsive to the needs of Caregivers and the people they take care of; people living with HIV and AIDS. To share the learnings at the workshop was Bongai Mundeta, the VSO RAISA Director and Hon. Ephraim Kayembe from Malawi who has been part of RAISA’s activities.
No doubt the workshop marks a very important milestone in the HIV and AIDS interventions by policy makers and CSOs in Eastern Africa.
As reported by Renaldah Mjomba, VSO Regional Policy and Advocacy Advisor
