Health systems
The missing link! Parliamentary hearings linking sexual & reproductive health and HIV/AIDS
Stronger links needed between sexual and reproductive health and HIV and AIDS
Authors:
T. Worthington ; A. M. Kjaerby
Publisher:
All Party Parliamentary Group on Population, Development and Reproductive Health, UK, 2004
This document, from the all-party parliamentary group on population, development and reproductive health, provides a number of recommendations on strengthening the links between sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and HIV and AIDS. The document makes 20 recommendations and provides the main points from both the New York call to commitment on linking HIV/AIDS and SRH, and the Glion call to action on family planning and HIV and AIDS in women and children.
The report stresses the strong links between SRH and HIV and states that no funding should be made available to programmes that prevent integration or cooperation between the two fields. Moreover, it argues that all policy should be based on Cairo’s ICPD programme of action which states that SRH services are a right, and that the review of the millennium development goals must acknowledge the role of SHR services. Other recommendations include: increasing multilateral collaboration and coordination; challenging American policy, which denies access to condoms and impacts upon national health systems; addressing the specific needs of women, men, and young people, as well as those living with HIV and AIDS; addressing human resource issues; and increasing cooperation between parliamentary and civil society leaders and organisations.[adapted from author]
