Nieuwsbrief

The EPF delegation focused on the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goal 5 on maternal mortality and universal access to reproductive health. Worldwide, MDG 5 is lagging behind the rest of Development Goals. This mission sought to support Parliamentary implication in decision-making process on this chapter of international cooperation and development.

EPF delegates met with representatives from the Ministry of health including Hon. Minister of Health M. André Mama Fouda, UN agencies, the French development cooperation actors and structures (AFD, SCAC, ANRS) and visited projects run by Cameroon NGOs active on SRHR. Briefings also included a development partners’ roundtable on health held at the EU delegation to exchange on best practices and coordination mechanisms between European development agencies to ensure the de facto implementation of the Cotonou Agreements and Accra agenda for Action on Aid Effectiveness (AAA).

Meeting vulnerable groups left behind

Delegates witnessed that for vulnerable groups, young and dependent people, there remain insurmountable barriers for accessing reproductive health services. Visits to CAMNAFAW health and youth centres enabled delegates to grasp the realities and financial implications of accessing reproductive health in a city such as Yaoundé as well as to better understand the challenge and importance of investing in access to Reproductive health and Family Planning. As large parts of the population does not access contraceptives or other reproductive health services for they are unavailable, expensive or mistrusted, Cameroon remains disproportionately affected by unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. While visiting local non-governmental programs focusing on vulnerable groups such as sex workers with HORIZONS FEMMES or marginalized abused women with RENATA, participating parliamentarians came to realise the deep lack of comprehensive social protection schemes along with the difficulties for those NGOs to cope with unmet needs and protection of vulnerable groups. Additionally to the visit, two roundtable were organised to present a campaign on female condom, which was run by selected civil-society organisations in partnership with the French Planning Familial and where French parliamentarians could hear on ambitions and demands from a large panel of NGOs working on Reproductive Health and Family Planning – related issues.

Engaging with stakeholders and decision-makers

In a health donor roundtable, kindly hosted by the EU delegation in Yaoundé, Parliamentarians were able to learn about the different health programmes in place in Cameroon operated mainly by the German and French development agencies (GTZ and AFD respectively) and their cooperation efforts in delivering health-related development aid. Delegates could share their concerns about the prospects of withdrawal from health of the French C2D (development and debt reduction agreement) in its future exercises. While maternal mortality reduction figures show MDG 5 as the most off tracks MDG in Cameroun and although Maternal and Child Health are major components of health cooperation in Cameroon, Cameroonian public health authorities and development partners still fail mobilising resources in order to honour funding needs related to reproductive health and family planning.

Overall, proposed activities have enabled delegation participants to discuss and learn about the challenges of global health and aid architecture; the latest developments, decentralisation process, new ideas and innovations on the frontline of health cooperation in Cameroon and finally about the implications of the economic and financial crisis on ODA spending for health in Cameroon. The mission especially focussed on vulnerable girls and women who bear the heaviest burden of poor health and of lack of access to family planning services. In Cameroon a woman dies every two hours because of pregnancy and/or childbirth-related causes.