The Joint Meeting of Ministers of Health and those responsible for HIV/AIDS in the SADC region took place on Tuesday 28 November in Luanda, where one of the panels served to launch the 2nd SADC Results Framework on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR).
Under the slogan ''Accelerating the SADC Strategy on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals'', the panel for the Launch of the 2nd SADC Results Framework on SRHR (ScoreCard) was under the responsibility of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and was attended by Her Excellency Dr Silvia Lutucuta, Angola's Minister of Health. Silvia Lutucuta, the UNFPA Regional Director for Southern and Eastern Africa, Ms Lydia Zigomo, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the SADC Secretariat, Ms Angele Makombo N'Tumba and the Director of the Swedish Regional SRHR Programme, Ms Elisabeth Hårleman.
In her speech, the UNFPA Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Ms Lydia Zigomo, congratulated Member States for the continued use of the ScoreCard as a tool to track performance across the region, identifying emerging practices that can contribute to peer learning and south-south collaboration. Concluding, Ms Zigomo said: "I call on all of us to analyse the SADC SRHR Step Results Framework and identify the areas where we are lagging behind. Let's make a collective commitment to the political leadership and resources needed to close these gaps."
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Ketha Francisco, Head of the Primary Health Care Department, National Directorate of Public Health (DNSP) of the Angolan Ministry of Health, in his presentation highlighted some results from the region: Seven countries achieved the SADC target of reducing the mother-to-child transmission rate to below 5%, however, three countries registered increases in the mother-to-child transmission rate.
He also emphasised that eight countries have achieved their targets or have achieved the SADC targets in improving unmet need for Family Planning, but that six Member States have failed to achieve this target.
The ScoreCard acts as a barometer of progress, not only in achieving results on the Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Strategy in the region, but also on the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals.
