Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118321

Alex O. Otieno, MPH, ABD, Department of Public Health, Temple University, 304 Vivacqua Hall, Philadelphia, PA PA 19122, 267-620-4139, otieno@arcadia.edu

African children are deprived of many basic necessities associated with good health outcomes. Global health equity, human development, and human rights imperatives call for clear, far-reaching and sustained changes in policies and practices pertaining to the provision of goods and services. Severe hunger, lack of health care, lack of safe drinking water and toilet or sanitation facilities, poor housing and extreme overcrowding, lack of access to information and communication technologies (ICT) such as TV, radio, telephones or newspapers are the bane of many black African children. This presentation considers three case studies of countries in transition (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya) to show the role of ICT as tools for advocacy and action aimed at alleviating this situation. Using country data collected by the United Nations to illustrate the tragic cases, an argument is made for a multi-pronged approach involving policy change, revamping of service delivery systems, and monitoring of implementation processes and outcomes. This is linked to an assessment of extant strategies for addressing the deleterious and avoidable disparities in the three countries under study. As a contribution to the discourse on policy change, funding allocation and government priority shifts aimed at facilitating the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals are considered. A case is made for redirecting military expenditure and funding to health and education needs.

Learning Objectives:

• a)Present data showing the challenges of achieving the millennium development goals pertaining to children in three African countries undergoing transitions (Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe) without major policy shifts.
• b)Articulate the intersections between development, health equity, and human rights with a specific focus on the African child.
• c)Offer examples of strategies that have been used successfully in advocacy and action efforts aimed at improving the policy arena in order to transform the deplorable goods and services situation of the African child.

Keywords: International Public Health, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.