Head of Botswana/EU Operations at the delegation of the EU to Botswana and SADC, Rigo Belpaire said the day was about creating conditions for reduced stigma and discrimination, better health outcomes, improved service delivery, greater client satisfaction, improved staff motivation and better working conditions".He said that the world agreed that a woman's ability to access reproductive health and rights is a cornerstone in her empowerment.According to Belpaire, a total of 179 governments signed up to a Programme of Action set out to provide, among other things, universal access to family planning and reproductive health services and reproductive rights.This commitment was reaffirmed in the High Level Dialogue on Health in the Post 2015 Development Agenda that took place in Gaborone in March this year, hosted by the Botswana government.
Belpaire said yesterday's event will feed into shaping the new Millennium Development Goals post 2015.He said the whole world had to wake up to the fact that HIV, sexual and reproductive health and rights are intimately linked."A woman can be breast-feeding, HIV positive, be receiving anti-retroviral treatment, have cervical cancer and be in need of contraceptives all at the same time".Furthermore, he noted that there is still great emphasis on curative services, despite the wisdom that prevention is better and much cheaper than cure.
