Bulletin 13
May 2006

AUSAID BUDGET 06/07

What does it mean for Sexual & reproductive health?

This aid budget is strongly focused on high level debt relief, pandemic preparedness and structural issues.

The budget increases the percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) that is allocated as foreign aid from 0.29% to 0.30% of GNI. However, most of this increase is taken up by multilateral debt initiatives, particularly in relation to Iraq.

Unfortunately traditional areas such as health and education have seen only a modest rise in funding levels.

While aid levels for these sectors such as health and education have not increased significantly, there have been some gains for sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Furthermore, UNFPA has received an increase of $500,000 for core costs bringing this budget’s total allocation to $4.5m. The IPPF gain announced early in 2006 was modest ($250,000), and it is hoped that given further exposure to this organisation that funding will increase in the next budget round.

Read ARHA's full analysis here

SYMPOSIUM

International Women's Development Agency (IWDA) is organising a high-level Symposium on the harmonisation of gender indicators. The forum will be held in Canberra, Australia, from 15-16 June 2006.

The symposium aims to contribute in a practical way to ensuring that gender equality is an integral component in development projects, programs and policies for Australian and New Zealand actors in the aid and development community. 

Most of the Symposium is invitation only, however the final session, "Indicators for Change: Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. How do we implement Millennium Development Goal 3?" is open to the public and IWDA extends the invitation to anyone who is interested.

Please RSVP to Kathy Proctor, kproctor@iwda.org.au.

EuroNGOs Conference

ARHA's CEO, Christina Richards, will be attending and presenting at the annual EuroNGOS conference entitled "Advancing Sexual & Reproductive Health and Rights Internationally: What Role for the Enlarged EU?" The conference will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania on 8 June.

Chris Richards will present a talk on the recent Australian debate on RU486 entitled: "Are You For 86? Mifepristone in Australia: Australian pro-choice experience of removing legal barriers to medical abortion."

POSITION VACANT

Policy Officer
We are looking for an experienced Policy Officer to promote appropriate policy positions for the organisation consistent with ICPD principles.

Please see the job description and selection criteria for more details.

Applications close COB 18 June

DOMESTIC NEWS 

UN HIGH-LEVEL MEETING
oN AIDS 2006



Uniting the world against AIDS

The 2006 follow-up meeting on the outcome of the twenty-sixth special session: implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS will take place from 31 May – 2 June at the United Nations in New York, USA.

The meeting will involve all sectors of the international community, governments, civil society and the private sector.

Read the Draft Official declaration

Read Civil society's recommendations

From the 14-16 June Mr. Sultan A.Aziz, the director of the Asia-Pacific division of the UNFPA, will be visiting Australia. He will be arriving fresh from attending the 4th Asian Women Ministers Parliamentarians Conference in New Zealand.

In Australian he will meet with AusAID officials, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, parliamentarians, NGOs and academics.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

AIDS Increases Among Women; Sexual Control Absent
May 30 Reuters

Vietnam: Population committee signs contraceptive deal
May 21 Vietnam News Service

Indonesia: Family Planning Chief Worried About Low Acceptor Growth
May 19 Antara New

Bangladesh: Reproductive Health Rights of Women Being Ignored
May 13 The New Nation

Mothers and Children Dying Needlessly, Says Report
May 9 People and Planet.Net

>>>More International News

NEW RESOURCES

Please check out ARHA's new resource pages on:

Sexual & Reporductive Health Rights

Reproductive Health in Emergencies

The Pacific Region

Indigenous Health

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