Addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the reproductive needs of youth and adolescents are top priorities for UNFPA assistance in the region. The Fund is one of the collaborators on the African Youth Alliance - a multi-pronged, field-driven partnership to reduce the incidence of HIV infection and to improve the lives of young people in Botswana, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. Scenarios from the Sahel, a UNFPA-supported advocacy campaign for and by youth that has been broadcast throughout the region, is having a wide impact on public awareness of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention underpins a wide variety of programmes at the country and regional levels.

Lack of access to emergency obstetric care is one of the reasons that so many women in the region die or are disabled as a complication of pregnancy. UNFPA's Initiative Against Fistula is one of its Africa-focused efforts to make motherhood safer.

More generally, the Fund works to create an enabling environment in which to further ICPD goals at the country level, to reduce high maternal and infant mortality and improve access to contraceptives. Coordinating emergency assistance to countries in crisis is another key area of work.

Creating an Enabling Environment

Adversity has galvanized both African leaders and international assistance efforts. A new African consensus on population, reproductive health and gender equity has been forged, as articulated within the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). NEPAD is an African-led, integrated development plan that addresses social, economic and political priorities. It calls on African countries to join together to harness their natural and human resources, to be "architects of their own sustained upliftment."

The newly reconstituted African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity) also endorses NEPAD's emphasis on governance and cooperation to achieve economic growth and social progress. As a major development partner, UNFPA supports and encourages such efforts at improved governance, and has pledged full support to NEPAD in the areas of its mandate.

Attitudes toward population and reproductive health issues have shifted markedly over the past decades. In the early 1970s, few sub-Saharan countries supported family planning efforts, and UNFPA was viewed primarily as a funding source.

Since the 1994 Conference on Population and Development, UNFPA has placed an increased emphasis on "top-down" strategies, while continuing to support services and projects at the community level. For instance, the Fund has worked closely with policy makers : through the Network of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians as well as the Arab and African Parliamentarians in the Population and Development Sector - to keep reproductive rights and population issues high on the policy agenda. Almost all countries in the region now support reproductive health programmes, including family planning, and integrate population issues into the development process.

In several countries, laws banning female genital cutting and violence against women have been passed, and model legal frameworks promoting the right to reproductive health have been passed in some countries (Guinea and Chad) and are under discussion in several others. Almost all countries have conducted at least one census and one demographic and health survey. However, the lack of relevant and accurate data is a serious problem that UNFPA is tackling.

Next: Responding to Crises

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