CSIS Report: Improving Women's Health in South Africa: Opportunities for PEPFAR

October 27, 2011

WASHINGTON, October 27, 2011– The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Global Health Policy Center has written a new report: “Improving Women's Health in South Africa: Opportunities for PEPFAR.” A link to the full report and an executive summary appear below.

Please find a link to the full report below:

http://csis.org/files/publication/111024_Fleischman_ImprovingWomensHealth_Web.pdf

Please find a summary of the report prepared by the report’s author below:

A period of major change is unfolding in health and HIV services in South Africa, carrying opportunities and risks for delivering effective, integrated health services that improve health outcomes and save lives. South Africa is decentralizing HIV services to the primary health care level, paving the way for greater integration to address women’s health and to reduce maternal mortality.

The United States can find feasible, flexible ways to support this process, even though its health program through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is scaling down. As PEPFAR transitions from an emergency to a more sustainable response, this is a crucial moment to demonstrate that it can address HIV-related goals by linking to more comprehensive services for women—notably linking HIV with family planning (FP), reproductive health (RH), and maternal child health (MCH). The stakes are high for PEPFAR and for the Global Health Initiative (GHI) to show results and, most importantly, for the women and children most at risk.

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The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.

H. Andrew Schwartz
CSIS
www.csis.org