Representatives
of Africa’s 53 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies meet
in Algiers over the coming six days to assess how to better
utilise their network of 2 million volunteers to address the
continent’s many challenges.
The 6th Pan African Conference of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies brings together not only all the National Societies
in Africa, but representatives of the wider Red Cross Red Crescent
Movement: sister National Societies from other regions, the
International Federation and the International Committee of
the Red Cross.
Also in Algiers will be key partners from government, UN agencies,
other humanitarian organisations, academia and the private sector.
The main themes of the Pan African Conference – public
health, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and food insecurity
– reflect some of the biggest obstacles to development
in Africa.
For Africa is beset by many seemingly insurmountable problems.
This is a region where the figures for key indicators like HIV
prevalence, life expectancy at birth or child mortality are
far worse than any other developing region in the world. Half
the continent’s population lives in poverty, some 180
million people are severely undernourished and there is widespread
vulnerability to natural disaster.
These are challenges too enormous for the Red Cross and Red
Crescent to tackle alone. Yet with their unrivalled network
of community-based volunteers, the National Societies increasingly
have a role to play in partnership with other organisations.
The Algiers conference is essentially a consolidation of the
work done at the last Pan African Conference in Burkina Faso
in 2000, when the outcome was the Ouagadougou Commitment.
At the 5th Pan African conference, the National Societies agreed
to focus their attentions on selected health interventions,
including HIV/AIDS, and on food security by strengthening the
mobilisation of their volunteer network – the Red Cross
and Red Crescent’s greatest resource.
In Algiers, the three main themes will be structured under three
headings: partnerships, resource mobilisation and social mobilisation.
Essentially Algiers will assess the progress made by National
Societies in fulfilling these commitments and outline what needs
to be done to make them a reality.
“Algiers must be seen in the context of Ouagadougou, which
is regarded as something of a watershed for the Red Cross/Red
Crescent in Africa,” says Richard Hunlédé,
head of the International Federation’s Africa department.
“Since Ouagadougou, we have seen many success stories
in which the Red Cross Red Crescent has played a role.”
Since 2000, individual National Societies have made great strides
in implementing HIV/AIDS peer education and home-based care
programmes, as well as developing anti-stigma policies for the
work place.
In the field of public health, 50 million children have been
reached by Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers during polio
vaccination campaigns, while the measles mortality rate has
been slashed by 35 per cent. The Red Cross/Red Crescent has
also been a driving force in scaling up anti-malaria interventions
in conjunction with measles campaigns.
“Most of these success stories have been achieved in collaboration
with other partners,” Hunlédé says. “One
of the central issues during the Algiers conference will be
how the International Federation and National Societies in Africa
can build on existing partnerships with governments, UN agencies,
other humanitarian actors and the private sector - and build
new ones – so as to better serve the needs of the most
vulnerable.”
A crucial step taken in Ouagadougou and one that is likely to
be endorsed in Algiers is that, rather than trying to do everything
with limited resources, the Red Cross and Red Crescent needs
to concentrate on doing a few things well. It was for this reason
that health, HIV/AIDS and food security were chosen.
“These are the biggest humanitarian challenges facing
the countries of Africa today,” says Razia Essack-Kauaria,
secretary general of the Namibian Red Cross and a member of
the International Federation’s governing board. “In
Ouagadougou we made the right strategic choice about the areas
where we needed to focus. That choice reflects the main humanitarian
challenges in Africa. Now we must move towards a greater ownership
of this strategy by National Societies and a wider implementation
of this strategy,” she adds.
The fact that the Red Cross Red Crescent’s priorities
tie in so closely with internationally identified objectives
– and specifically the Millennium Development Goals –
makes it much easier to establish successful partnerships that
address Africa’s most urgent challenges.
Good examples of this have been the involvement of the International
Federation and individual National Societies in major global
public health campaigns such as the Measles Initiative, Polio
Eradication and Roll Back Malaria.
Similarly in the field of HIV/AIDS, six National Societies in
Africa, all with well established home-based care programmes,
have launched pilot projects to provide support for anti-retroviral
treatment (ART) efforts by their national ministries of health.
By giving nutritional support and psychological and social support,
and ensuring that patients take their medication, they are not
only complementing the clinical care offered by the state, they
are also working towards the World Health Organisation’s
goal of getting 3 million people in developing countries onto
ART by 2005.
Red Cross HIV/AIDS home-based care programmes in Southern Africa
have become an important vehicle for addressing the growing
problem of food insecurity.
The decimation of whole generations by the pandemic is having
a dramatic impact on the ability of communities to feed themselves.
In partnership with the World Food Programme, National Societies
and the International Federation targeted vulnerable households
for food aid.
This collaboration with the WFP is continuing today in Chad
and Darfur, where more than one million displaced people are
facing severe food shortages.
In Algiers, there will be many case studies presented that highlight
the way National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, supported
by the International Federation, are playing a pivotal role
in alliances to combat Africa’s ills.
“We hope these success stories will encourage National
Societies throughout the whole of Africa to really take ownership
of this strategy and use it to improve their activities at community
level. I would like to see Algiers consolidating our role as
a reliable and effective partner in efforts to assist the vulnerable,”
Hunlédé says.
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The
6th Pan African Conference of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies brings together representatives of the wider
Red Cross Red Crescent Movement (p00019)
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Zambian
Red Cross volunteer Anton Chilufya demonstrates the value
of a National Society during measles campaigns, having
rounded up children from vulnerable households and accompanied
them to the vaccination post(p0840)
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“These
are the biggest humanitarian challenges facing the countries
of Africa today,” says Razia Essack-Kauaria, secretary
general of the Namibian Red Cross and a member of the
International Federation’s governing board (p11932)
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Zimbabwe
Red Cross care facilitator Josephine Oliver comforts Todd
Murukai, who has HIV/AIDS. "We have to show the community
we care," she says (p4547)
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