SADC must prioritize Women and girls empowerment to attain agenda 2063 and SDGs 2030
Women and girls empowerment is key to reduce gender inequalities.
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Background information
Outreach Scout Foundation-OSF is a local Lilongwe based NGO registered in 2004 under the Trustee’s Incorporation Act and NGO Board of Malawi, affiliated with Council for NGOs in Malawi OSF is governed by 7 Board of Trustees to which the OSF director is accountable.
VISION: Malawi with well empowered ultra-poor women and men in development
MISSION: OSF exists to work and advocate for improved living and framework conditions to Ultra-poor/vulnerable women, girls, men and boys in rural communities through promoting economic empowerment; human rights, especially women’s and children’s rights; social and health justice
FOCUS AREAS: Advocacy, Social accountability, Awareness raising
CORE VALUES: Pro-poor, Inclusiveness, Transparency, Accountability, Integrity, Independence, Sustainability
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
- Promote economic empowerment of ultra-poor women and men in rural communities through small scale business, i.e. village savings and Loans
- Promote and advocate women’s rights, gender equality and reduce gender based violence (GBV)
- To advocate for the implementation of national policies and strategies i.e. National Social protection programmes (NSPP) to benefit the ultra-poor in rural areas;
- To promote and advocate for health such as universal health coverage policies
- To cooperate with other civil society organizations and NGO networks in the promotion of good governance and human rights.
International Networking
Universal Health Coverage 2030 Coalition, Global Health Strategies, Gender Based Violence Prevention Network, Girls are not BRIDES, Gender Links, Global Action for Men’s Health
National Networking
Universal Health Coverage Coalition, Malawi Health Equity Network, NGO- Gender Coordination Network, Civil Society Network on Climate Change, Human Rights Defenders Coalition, NGO Coalition on Child Rights, NGO Water Sanitation and Hygiene Network
SELECTED RELATED ASSIGNMENTS CARRIED OUT TODATE
International Labor Organisation 2020-2022
- Conducted budget tracking orientation workshop for Civil Society Social protection Network on 1st December 2022
- Coordinated national conference of civil society organizations in social protection leading to formation of a national network
- Coordinated a basic 5-day training of civil society social protection network
- Conducted a national elective conference for the Civil Society Social Protection Network on 25 November 2022
- Civil Society organizations engagements on social protection network in Lilongwe, Zomba, Mzuzu and Blantyre. June 2022
- Coordinated meeting presenting Political Party Manifestos Analysis Report. Lilongwe, October 2020
- Coordinated a media orientation meeting on social protection. Lilongwe, January 2021
- Conducted orientation of social protection taskforce. Lilongwe, March 2021
- Conducted social protection sensitization meetings targeting community leaders. Dedza, Ntcheu and Chikwawa, March 2021
- Conducted training of district social support committee. Nsanje, March 2021
- Coordinated dissemination meetings of Management Information System Assessment report and the Social Accountability Assessment report in social protection. Lilongwe, June 2021
- Training of district social support committees in Kasungu, Dowa and Ntchisi. June 2021
- Orientation of civil society organisations in Mzimba. November 2021
- Coordinated orientation meetings with Malawi Parliament targeting budget and finance committee, and community and social affairs committee. Lilongwe, November 2021, and February 2022
- Orientation of Elderly department in the Ministry of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare. Lilongwe, March 2022
IRISH AID THROUGH INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION SUPPORT OUTREACH SCOUT FOUNDATION
Outreach Scout Foundation (OSF) is working in partnership with International labour Organisation (ILO) funding from IRISHAID, The partnership started in October 2020 in implementing social protection interventions in Malawi.
PROSTATE CANCER
Prostate Cancer is an imaging issue and we as an organisation we feel this issue needs special attention so that we accomplish an agenda of leaving no one behind to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
Putting Men & Boys on the Gender Agenda
Men’s health is unnecessarily poor throughout the world. Globally, the gap between male and female life expectancy and healthy life expectancy has widened in the last 40 years.
Global public health organisations have not identified this as an issue or taken any significant steps to address the problem. Men are almost entirely absent from global public health policy.
Global Action on Men’s Health (GAMH) exists to address this inequality. GAMH is working to:
- Encourage the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international agencies involved in public health to develop research, policies and strategies on men’s health
- Urge individual states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to implement measures to tackle men’s health problems
- Provide guidance on how to take effective action on men’s health
- Focus primarily on public health and the social determinants of health
UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE HIGH LEVEL PANEL DISCUSSION MEETING
Monday, 11 December 2017 06:09Panelists advocate for Social Health FundWritten by Salome Gangire
Mzuzu, December 11, 2017: Panelist at a high level discussion on Universal Health Coverage Friday proposed the need for the country to have a Social Health Fund as one way of achieving Universal Health coverage..
Speaking during at a panel discussion at St John of God in Mzuzu, prior to Universal Health Coverage Day, Dr. Themba Nyirenda of Pamodzi Health Care said the establishment of Social Health Fund would enable the poor to have easy access to quality health care services.
He said the fund is working very well in Rwanda and it can as well work in Malawi as long as there is political will.
Dr. Nyirenda said political will is the main driving force for the success of any initiative in a country.
“In Rwanda, 96 per cent of the citizens are covered by one form of health care insurance system or another and this enables ultra-poor citizens to easily access quality health care. Malawi can learn from Rwanda, a country that went through genocide but it managed to put a system in place in the country’ most difficult time and it has yielded results.” he pointed out.
Nyirenda said the country need to put in place legislation that would support the establishment of Social Health Fund that would among other things promote accountability and decentralization in the health care system.
Revenue Governance Coordinator for OXFAM Malawi, Mathias Kafunda said the fund once established, it will address efficiencies in the health sector.
“The introduction of private wings, user and by-pass fees in the country’s hospital denies poor people from accessing quality health services,”he viewed.
Kafunda disclosed that the country would realize more money through the fund than it is currently getting through private wings, user and by-pass fees.
“OXFAM is a member of a coalition on Universal Health Coverage and as a coalition we have realized that in the current circumstances where our health system is not working properly, initiatives such as users and by- pass fees prevent other people to have access to equitable and quality health services,” he said.
Kafunda said the coalition has been looking at different means on how government realizes and utilizes revenue to ensure that people have access to equitable and quality health care.
“The coalition noted that the country is not getting the value for money from the little available resources as in some cases funds are abused,” he observed.
Outreach Scout Foundation Executive Director, Amon Lukhele whose organization organized the discussion said the aim of the panel discussion was to advocate for universal health coverage without financial risk adding that the initiative is about people having access to the health care without suffering financial hardships.
The Panel discussion was held under a theme “Achieving Universal Health Coverage 2030 Through Health Financing in Malawi.”
Universal Health Coverage Day is commemorated annually on December 12 and calls for countries to provide for their citizens affordable and quality health care.
The event was also a platform to disseminate the Peoples report on SDGs. Outreach Scout Foundation (OSF) is in the SDGs CSOs Committee coordinated by Council for NGOs in Malawi