{"id":5692,"date":"2025-04-29T17:42:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/?p=5692"},"modified":"2025-04-29T17:45:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:45:29","slug":"there-can-be-no-health-equality-without-gender-equality-why-vaccines-are-vital-to-the-future-of-africas-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/there-can-be-no-health-equality-without-gender-equality-why-vaccines-are-vital-to-the-future-of-africas-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"There Can Be No Health Equality Without Gender Equality: Why Vaccines Are Vital to the Future of Africa\u2019s Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Routine immunizations are essential for children to thrive.<\/p>\n

In the below article, Her Excellency Fatima Maada Bio, the First Lady of Sierra Leone and the President of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), highlights the importance of immunization for Africa\u2019s women and girls.<\/p>\n

A baby girl born in Africa today has a better chance than ever of living to see her fifth birthday. Large-scale routine immunization programmes, driven by innovation and collaboration with countries like the UK, have helped to halve under-five child mortality over the past quarter century. We should celebrate these achievements. But we must also recognise that this is no time for complacency.<\/p>\n

A girl born in Africa in 2025 will be born into a changing and uncertain world. Our optimism about Africa\u2019s huge potential is tempered by the interconnected challenges, from conflict to climate change, that could both hold back development and stoke the risk of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases over the coming decades. And against this backdrop, we must face the fact that our daughters are growing up today facing too many obstacles that should have been consigned to the past.<\/p>\n

For example, almost half of women in Africa still do not have access to essential healthcare during pregnancy and birth. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the vast majority of global maternal deaths \u2014 more than\u00a070%<\/a>\u00a0at the last estimate in 2020 \u2014 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, the vast majority of cases of cervical cancer \u2014 a largely preventable cancer \u2014 occur in low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exacerbating these challenges, girls and women face social practices and stigma that can make it difficult for them to access the information and health care they need even where it is available.<\/p>\n

These facts speak to a reality that African women live every day: the reality that gender still plays a key role in determining health outcomes. And as the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) approaches, achieving the SDGs in Africa will remain out of reach for as long as gender inequality remains unaddressed.<\/p>\n

So what are the solutions?<\/p>\n

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) can be the foundation of a fair and thriving Africa. And one the key building blocks of universal health coverage, and of a resilient primary health care system, is immunization.<\/p>\n

Vaccines are not just life-savers in their own right: they are often the entry point for connecting women to essential health services. This is why we support Gavi\u2019s\u00a0replenishment drive<\/a>, as the Vaccine Alliance prepares to\u00a0double the rate<\/a>\u00a0at which it delivers immunizations by 2030. Such work has far-reaching benefits above and beyond the lives it saves.<\/p>\n

At present, Africa accounts for\u00a065% of Gavi\u2019s investment<\/a>, equating to 438 million children immunised, and 11.3 million lives saved, since 2000. For women and girls, the rollout of the\u00a0game-changing HPV vaccine<\/a>\u00a0across 27 countries in Africa has protected more than 12 million individuals from cervical cancer.<\/p>\n

\"\"A medical official administers the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV) during a vaccine campaign in Nigeria in October 2023.<\/span>
\nImage: Gavi\/2023\/Latitude Space Africa<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Crucially, Gavi\u2019s public\u2013private model of partnership and support is helping African countries unlock sustainable solutions to their own challenges. Gavi-supported countries co-finance their vaccination programmes and follow a pathway to independence as national income levels grow.<\/p>\n

The financial case for investment in vaccines is clear. Every dollar that Gavi spends on vaccines\u00a0generates $54<\/a>\u00a0in broader economic benefits. And this payoff is sure to be improved as new innovations and partnerships, such as Gavi\u2019s African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), aim to unleash the untapped potential of Africa\u2019s talents and workforce to foster not only a vibrant vaccine manufacturing ecosystem, but also stronger regional and global health security.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the\u00a0US$1.2 billion that AVMA<\/a>\u00a0will make available over the next 10 years, perhaps a girl born in Africa today will be free to pursue a passion for biomedical science in her motherland when she enters the job market.<\/p>\n

Our fundamental belief is that as African women, we are equal and always have been. We should hold the same expectations for healthcare, education, and economic opportunities as boys and men. We want to raise those expectations right across our continent, and that is why we support partners like Gavi, who provide tried and tested tools to forge our own brighter future.<\/p>\n

To give today’s children the future they deserve, now is the time to redouble efforts to ensure every baby enjoys the vital protection of immunization and grows up with the healthcare they need. \u201cGood health and well-being\u201d is not only one of the SDGs, it is the bedrock of equality and of vigorous, vibrant economic and social development.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Routine immunizations are essential for children to thrive. In the below article, Her Excellency Fatima Maada Bio, the First Lady of Sierra Leone and the President of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), highlights the importance of immunization for Africa\u2019s women and girls. A baby girl born in Africa today has a better chance than ever of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5721,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5692\/revisions\/5721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oaflad.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}