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1.2. The Maputo Plan of Action
Country Reservation
Uganda Art. 14(1)(a) on women entirely the right to control their fertility regardless of their marital status Art. 14(2)(c) on access to safe abortion “Article 14(1)(a): In respect to the women’s right to control their fertility interpreted to mean; women entirely have the right to control their fertility regardless of their marital status” “Article 14(2)(c): interpreted in a way conferring an individual right to abortion or mandating a State Party to provide access thereto. The State is not bound by this clause unless permitted by domestic legislation expressly providing for abortion”
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The Maputo Plan of Action (MPoA) was adopted in January 2006 at the AU Heads of State Summit. It offers a costed plan of action for the operationalisation and implementation of the Continental Policy Framework (CPF) for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). See Box 2.
The CPF for SRHR was developed in response to the call for reducing maternal and infant morbidity and mortality and the mainstreaming of SRHR in primary health care to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The AUC developed this framework in collaboration with UNFPA, the International Planned Parenthood Federation African Regional Office and other development partners.
The first MPoA covered the period from 2007 to 2010, after which it was extended to 2015. After undertaking an extensive review of this period, the AU Heads of State endorsed the revised MPoA.
The overall goal of the MPoA is “for African Governments, civil society, the private sector and all multisector development partners to join forces and redouble efforts so that together, the effective implementation of the continental policy framework on SRHR, Agenda 2063 and SDGs are achieved in order to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths by expanding contraceptive use, reducing levels of unsafe abortion, ending child marriage, eradicating harmful traditional practices including female genital mutilation and eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls and ensuring access of adolescents and youth to SRHR by 2030 in all countries in Africa.”192
The MPoA is considered as the AU’s attempt to operationalise Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol. Applying it in conjunction with the two General Comments on Article 14 of the Protocol, adopted by the Commission, will go a long way in aiding AU Member States to fulfil their obligations under the Protocol and usher in an era of health rights enjoyment for African women.
The revised MPoA has 10 key strategies for action: 1. Improving political commitment, leadership and good governance; 2. Instituting health legislation and policies for improved access to Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) services; 3. Ensuring gender equality, women and girls’ empowerment and respect of human rights; 4. Improving strategic communication for SRH and reproductive rights; 5. Investing in the SRH needs of adolescents, youth and other vulnerable marginalised populations; 6. Optimising the functioning health system for RMNCAH; 7. Investing in human resources by strengthening training, recruitment and retention; 8. Improving partnerships and multi-sectoral collaborations for RMNCAH; 9. Ensuring accountability and strengthening M&E, research and innovation; 10. Increasing investments in health.
The MPoA includes cost estimates for the requirements of RMNCAH care and distinguishes two scenarios: 1. Costing of when all women’s RMNCAH care needs are provided: a total of US$318 billion would be required from 2016 to 2030 2. Costing to provide unmet RMNCAH care needs of women on the African continent over this period: a total of US$182 billion would be required
These cost estimates are indicated with the aim of mobilising appropriate responses of African governments, donors, civil society and the private sector.
Meeting the objectives as stated in the MPoA appears to be challenging: a variety of factors have hampered implementation. The main factors include:
■ Inadequate financing for health, low human resources and high donor dependency; ■ Limited political commitment and leadership in some countries; ■ Inadequate health legislation and fragmentation of government structures in addition to weak national health systems; specifically, these systems see a shortage of SRH services, resources and capacity, weak monitoring of data and a lack of male involvement; ■ Complexity of tracking government budgets and identifying how much is allocated to health and SRH; ■ The still widespread nature of harmful practices, affecting millions of women and girls; ■ Limited empowerment of women and girls; ■ Lastly, varying levels of awareness on the costed action plan.
SOLIDARITY FOR AFRICAN WOMEN’S RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
When the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Banjul Charter”) was adopted in 1981, women’s rights actors immediately began to point out its deficiency in terms of addressing systemic issues of discrimination against women and girls as well as its inadequacy in relation to specifically providing for women’s rights. Whereas the Banjul Charter makes general provisions on discrimination and equality before the law under Articles 2, 3 and 18, the absence of specific protection for women’s rights is glaring.
In the years following adoption of the Banjul Charter, various groups began to agitate for AU Member States to adopt regional normative frameworks to address women and girls’ rights on the continent. These groups were largely structured around the thematic focus areas of their work. Groups such as the Inter-African Committee were already advanced in their advocacy for the adoption of a regional legal instrument to end FGM. Increasingly, women’s rights organisations realised that there was a need to collectively advocate for a comprehensive women’s rights legal instrument. By end-2002, the AU had developed a draft women’s rights protocol, which was to be tabled before the Member States. With this knowledge, and on reading the draft protocol, Equality Now in collaboration with the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association and following consultations with other women’s rights organisations, convened women’s rights groups in Africa to discuss the draft protocol and give their input towards enriching it and ensuring that all women’s rights issues were comprehensively addressed.
The collective voice and strategy of African women’s rights organisations agitated relentlessly for a comprehensive African women’s rights protocol that addressed most of the issues affecting women and girls in Africa, leading to the adoption of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (“the Maputo Protocol”) in July 2003. The successful efforts of the women’s organisations resulted in a stronger protocol, which led to the rise of the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights (SOAWR) Coalition in 2004, which was, and continues to be, housed at Equality Now as the Secretariat. SOAWR became a formidable force that champions for translating rights in paper into reality for African women.
Over the past 17 years, the SOAWR Coalition has grown to be the largest coalition advocating for the Maputo Protocol, with a current membership of 63 women’s rights organisations in 32 countries in Africa. Today, it boasts of having significantly contributed to the ratification of the Maputo Protocol by 42 of the 55 AU Member States, with significant domestication and implementation of the Maputo Protocol in most of these countries. SOAWR recently launched its Strategic Plan 2020–2024, which seeks to achieve universal ratification of the Maputo Protocol, greater domestication and implementation and state accountability of the Maputo Protocol.
