Accountability at the African Union Commission
As part of our work of accountability, Accountability International has been working at the African Union Commission through various platforms. We have also been promoting accountability, human rights, youth and sexual diversity at the AUC.
Engagement at the AUC has been longstanding and varies. Below are some of the AUC instruments we have engaged with, including innovative work around the AUC that we have produced.
Over the years this work has been done by various staff at A(AI), including Lucinda van den Heever, Gemma Oberth, Bob Munyati, Sheriff Mothopeng, Daniel Molekele, Ricki Kgositau, and Phillipa Tucker.
The African Union (AU) in 2015 adopted Agenda 2063, a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent and of it citizens over the next 50 years. In the same year, the United Nations also adopted 2030 Agenda, a sustainable plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. The two transformative agendas though with varying timeframes, converge on the parameters for sustainable political, social and economic development.
Accountability International in 2019 developed the African Health Accountability Framework that seeks to support the goal of the AUC which is that ‘by 2030, the ensure the implementation of the African Union Health Policy Instruments (AUHHPI) by making access to health for all Africans a reality.”
The African Health Accountability Framework acts as enabler for addressing overall accountability for all African Health policies instruments.
The African Health Accountability Framework comprises of the three key mechanisms of any accountability framework namely Monitoring, Review and Action. Monitoring finds out what is/is not happening, where and who is affected. Whereas review asks if pledges, promises and commitments have been kept and duties discharged. It further asks what good practices can be learned. Action is more concerned with measures needed to put things right if they have not gone as intended as well as rewarding performance.
The African Health Accountability Framework through statutory as well as ad hoc platforms will provide periodic reviews of the health situation on the continent. Statutory platforms such as the Maternal New-Born Child Health (MNCH) Taskforce, African Taskforce on Food and Nutrition and Development (ATFFND), AIDS Watch Africa (AWA) among others will review the status of their respective areas of mandate. Partners will support the statutory platforms to ensure the health situation of the continent is reviewed annually.
The International Conference on Population and Development was held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994 and “consider{ed} the broad issues of and interrelationships between population, sustained economic growth and sustainable development, and advances in the education, economic status and empowerment of women”, and was “explicitly given a broader mandate on development issues than previous population conferences, reflecting the growing awareness that population, poverty, patterns of production and consumption and the environment are so closely interconnected that none of them can be considered in isolation. Population is linked to the full range of development concerns including poverty alleviation, women’s empowerment and environmental protection.
The conference therefore focused on population, sustained economic growth and sustained development, with special emphasis on women’s health, education and status. Delegations from 179 States took part took part to finalize a Programme of Action (PoA) for the next 20 years which addresses a wide range of population and development themes until 2015 and beyond. The ICPD PoA sets a framework for the development of more than a dozen key issues of which one was reproductive rights and reproductive health.
The SRHR section focused attention on 5 Key issues:
- Reproductive rights and reproductive health
- Family planning
- Sexually transmitted diseases and HIV prevention
- Human sexuality and gender relations
- Adolescents
The ICPD PoA includes goals to significantly reduce infant, child and maternal mortality and to expand access to education, specifically for girls.
We have been working on ICPD and beyond 2015 processes since May 2012. We continue to do research reports as we find gaps and the need during our work. Advocacy around these research findings will impact the inclusiveness of Africans in these global processes, and in the monitoring thereof after the renewed commitments have taken place. We continue to hold partners such as the AUC, UN bodies and civil society and government to account for their inadequate inclusiveness or lack of transparency on this work.
AI ran a project that contributed research on the data compiled through the PAT, as well as on the nature of the national-level process of gathering the information and submitting the reports to the AU. This research provided the evidence-base for advocacy efforts to improve the reporting process, as well as support to and capacity building among stakeholders to ensure their full involvement in increasingly effective efforts to realize the SRHR targets in the region in time for the 2015 deadline. AI hosts the largest SRHR database for Africa as a direct result of this project:
Full details can be found here.
The Maputo Plan of Action for the Operationalisation of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Continental Policy Framework, commonly known as the Maputo Plan of Action (MPOA) or Maputo Plan, aims to achieve universal SRHR in Africa by 2015. In order to assess member states’ progress in implementing this plan, the AUC administered a Progress Assessment Tool (PAT) - a questionnaire completed in 2010 for a 5 year review of the Maputo Plan of Action. At their 15th Session, the AU Assembly requested the AUC to develop (and align with MDGs 4 and 5) a set of indicators for monitoring and reporting on the MPOA. The AUC has gone through a rigorous process of developing and piloting the indicators.
Full details can be found here.
In early 2014 the AUC Dept of Social Affairs announced its intention to review and validate several health data and policies for Africa that were expiring and up for renewal. The commitments were reviewed in 2014 and 2015. The review of the commitments was vital to determining whether they should be renewd and in what form. In the interests of transparency and inclusion, AAI is sharing what we learn during this process with others, for your information, feedback, and otherwise to use in your work.
Full details can be found here.
Accountability International proud to be a partner of the African Union Commission on the process of increasing accountability on the revised AU Health Policy Instruments. The Commission of the African Union has successfully finalized the revision of key health policy instruments. The revised health policy instruments have been adopted and endorsed by the 1st Session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Health, Population and Drug Control and the 27th Ordinary Session of the Assembly respectively. The instruments include the African Health Strategy 2016-2030, The Maputo Plan of Action (2016-2030), The Catalytic Framework to end AIDS, TB and Eliminate Malaria in Africa by 2030 and the African Regional Nutrition Strategy 2015-2025.
Full details can be found here.
This toolkit is for members of civil society including community based organisations, national governments, regional communities (such as SADC), UN agencies, the African Union and funding partners. It is also useful in advocacy, policy communication and research with a particular focus on SRHR and population and development.
View the Toolkit here.
The Maputo Plan of Action aims to achieve universal SRHR in Africa by 2015, with 9 action areas: Integration of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services in primary health care (PHC), repositioning family planning, youth-friendly services, unsafe abortion, quality safe motherhood, resource mobilization, commodity security and monitoring and evaluation. In 2010, the African Union Commission administered a Progress Assessment Tool (PAT) - a questionnaire - for a 5 year review of the Maputo Plan of Action. This database reflects the data captured during this reporting process. This therefore represents the most extensive and complete quantitative and qualitative database on SRHR in Africa in existence.
Log in to the MPOA Database here.