EAC Must Use TRIPS

Mr. Nanjakululu J. Wasai, the ACORD Policy and Advocacy Officer, has urged the East African Community comprising of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi to use TRIPS flexibilities as enshrined in the WTO 2001 Doha declaration to ease access to HIV treatment in the region.

Speaking in Arusha Tanzania on 26 September 2007, to over 80 members of parliament from the five countries of the region the East African Legislative Assembly members and health ministers from the respective countries, he underscored the need for the region to face HIV and AIDS as one including doing bulk purchasing of drugs not only for HIV but for opportunistic infections as well. He specifically asked the members of parliament in the region and the ministers present to turn his recommendations into actionable policies at country level as their contribution to improving the health status of the population. Noting that over 90% of resources meant for health and in particular AIDS came from donors, he said that was not sustainable and the region’s policy makers needed to source for local funds including implementing the 2001 Abuja African Heads of State declaration to allocate 15% of their annual budgets to health.

Acknowledging that the region like the rest of Sub Saharan Africa had a high disease burden including AIDS and at the same time the highest debt burden, he called on the legislators from the region to lobby IMF, World Bank and other international donors to cancel debts to the countries of the region and use the money so saved to invest in health services for the poor. He however noted that this may prove difficult even if debts were canceled to use the same funds for health pointing out that IMF had imposed public spending ceiling to many countries in the region which are obsolete and needed to be expunged. Mr. Nanjakululu also implored legislators to get involved more in trade negotiations between their countries and key partners like the EU on the ongoing Economic Partnership Agreements that aim to introduce free trade areas in Africa for European goods and services. He cautioned that the EAC needed to move cautiously recommending that a health impact assessment of EPAs be done before committing to it to prevent the kind of social and health catastrophe that befell the region during the disastrous structural adjustment programmes in the 1980s and 90s exemplified in the collapsed social and health infrastructure due to reduced or in some cases no public spending in these crucial sectors.

ACORD had been invited to this event by the EAC following its work on empowerment and promotion of rights of PLWHIV in the region. ACORD sponsored five members of the East African Regional Network of PLWHIV and another five young AIDS Free Generation Ambassadors to participate in the meeting as part of ACORD’s work to lobby governments in Africa to pay more attention to their commitments, sustainable AIDS interventions and funding.

Speaking at the same event dubbed- High level advocacy and policy meeting between the EAC and UNFPA, Adrine Nzambimana ,17, an AIDS Free Generation Ambassador from Burundi accompanied by 4 other young ambassadors from the region- decried the lack of supportive and actionable policy in the region to respond to unique issues facing children infected and affected with HIV and AIDS. She particularly singled out children headed households as a group in urgent need of support. She urged lawmakers to initiate free universal primary and secondary school education in the region in addition to provision of free sanitary towels to girl children in school to increase their adherence and reduce drop out rates. She called on the legislators to pass appropriate laws that make provision of health care especially to children and the old mandatory and free of charge and to put in place social health insurance for citizens from the region.

Proscovia Namakula, a member of the recently launched East Africa Regional Network of People living with HIV (PLWHIV) criticized some discriminatory laws that countries in the region had enacted giving the example of Uganda that passed a law which criminalizes passing on HIV to another person knowingly. She argued that such a law infringes on the PLWHIV sexual and reproductive health rights stating that in cases where countries in the region still uses ineffective PMTCT regimes like Nevirapine long abandoned in the developed world, one could not rule out mother to child transmission which according to this law could land one in prison. She urged the Uganda law makers present to lead their colleagues in repealing this otherwise discriminatory and repressive piece of legislation. She wondered allowed too how the region with among the highest HIV burden lacked a factory to manufacture ARVs, stressing that time had come for EAC to explore that option to make ARV access sustainable in the region in the long term. She also asked the policy makers to ensure that ARV dispensing sites are networked so that those on ARVs can access them wherever they travel with the countries and later in the EAC. She pointed out that the current system was restrictive and not PLWHIV friendly.

Responding on behalf of the EAC, the Ugandan Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the EAC Council of Ministers Hon. Eriya Kateggaya was upbeat that the issues that Nanjakululu and the team from the East African Regional Network of PLWHIV had raised were very crucial and would be tackled. He asked however that close monitoring be done to ensure that such recommendations do not fall through the net never to see the light of day. He noted too that EAC was now moving to undertake bulk purchasing of medicines. The Director UNFPA Country Technical Services Team based in Ethiopia Mr. Benson Morah called for more detailed discussion between Nanjakululu and UNFPA and other policy makers in the region to define key policy directions -underscoring the importance of the issues the latter had raised were pertinent to the health wellbeing of the poor in the region.

Among other dignitaries present during this meeting were: Amb. Juma Mwapachu- Secretary General EAC, Ms. Mari Simonen, Deputy Director and Assistant Secretary General UNFPA; Hon. Abdirahin H. Abdi, Speaker, East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), Hon. Richard B. Nduhuura- Chair of the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health and Minister of state for Health, Republic of Uganda and Dr. Stanley Sonoiya- Senior Health coordinator, EAC to name but a few.

<< Back to main