African health advocates meet in Kenya to discuss need for governments to improve basic healthcare services

Jun 4 2009

Health advocates at a civil society meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, called for African governments to improve access to basic health care, IRIN reports. "African governments are failing to offer even the most basic healthcare that could save lives, speakers warned," writes IRIN. 

"Healthcare is a matter of life and death, and the right to life is a basic human right," said Daniel Molokele, co-coordinator of the NGO Global Zimbabwe Forum. Yet, healthcare and other social services receive less government support than weapon and security programs, he said.

Country representatives at the meeting spoke of populations with limited or no access to antiretrovirals, sexual and reproductive health services, and HIV/AIDS prevention. "Molokele noted that if the concept of basic human rights is to become a reality, civil society would have to put pressure on governments to implement the laws protecting human rights," IRIN writes (IRIN, 6/3).