ICOD Action Network’s Human Rights Based Approach in programming and joining the global converation on Human Rights - Blog Action Day 2013

As a community based organization, ICOD Action Network maintains the belief that all human beings are created in the image of God, underlining the equal value and the inherent dignity in all human life. 

ICOD Action Network chose to work within a human rights framework, because it believes that this framework among other benefits creates a common platform for action for communities, donors and  implementing organizations like NGOs, Faith Based Organizations and the private sector. In its rights-based programming, ICOD Action Network works with six guiding principles. The are as follows;

1. Accountability

ICOD Action Network attaches great importance to this element and considers it an essential principle in it rights-based commitment for increased protection and realization of human rights. Accountability is the basic and outstanding operational principle in all projects implemented by the organization.

2. Universality

ICOD Action Network  believes that human rights are inalienable in the sense that they cannot be selectively granted or withdrawn but represent inherent claims and entitlements for all human beings, regardless of class, ethnic background, gender, religion, caste e.t.c.

3. Equality/ non discrimination

This principle is important in our planning projects targeting marginalized communities and those excluded in our area of operation in order to ensure and strengthen their claim for;

·      An equal voice in the distribution of resources and rights.

·      Real access to and control of these resources and rights.

·      Equality in legislation, policy and administrative practices.

4. Indivisibility / inter-relatedness

ICOD Network recognizes the importance of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. By so doing, ICOD Action Network acknowledges the multidimensional aspects and causes to poverty and marginalization and believes that a holistic approach must be taken in analyzing human rights deficits in overcoming poverty, exclusion and oppression.

5. Participation

The right to participate in public affairs is a human right, recognized in international human rights standards. ICOD Action Network always analyzes the systematic barriers to participation for the poor in development and has continued to empower the poor to overcome these barriers and claim this right. This principle has helped alter existing power relations in some communities were we work. 

Source: ICOD Action Network website

#BAD13, #OCT16, #Humanrights, #BlogActionDay, #Uganda, #ICODActionNetwork #Lyantonde

My 1000th Smile

This is a video about Harriet; the 2013 beneficiary of the ICOD Action Network and GlobeMed at Arizona State University Housing and Sanitation Project. Harriet lost her husband to HIV/AIDS leaving her with 4 children aged between 2 and 10 years living in a collapsing house, with no access to safe water, food, health care and with basic sanitation facilities like a pit latrine. In July 2013, ICOD Action Network and GlobeMed at Arizona State University started building a new two roomed house and a pit latrine that was handed over to her on September 30, 2013. She said she has smiled about 1000 times since July which is the reason  for "My 1000th Smile" READ MORE about our Housing and Sanitation project here icodactionnetwork.org/shelter.html

What Will Your Hands Do? - A new Video from our partner GlobeMed at Arizona State University

Competition: Anti-Corruption Youth Essay Competition, AFRICAN UNION ADVISORY BOARD ON CORRUPTION

AFRICAN UNION ADVISORY BOARD ON CORRUPTION Presents Anti-Corruption Youth Essay Competition:  “How to make corruption unattractive in Africa”. Are you an African youth concerned about corruption on the continent? Have you or anyone close to you been a victim of corruption? Do you believe your future is in any way threatened by corrupt practices? Would you want your voice to be heard on the issue of corruption? And do you have a passion for writing?

Then you should seriously consider participating in this year’s ‘Anti-Corruption Youth Essay Competition,’ organized by the African Union Advisory Board on Corruption (AUABC). This is within the framework of festivities to mark the tenth anniversary of the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC) which include the annual International Anti-corruption week, which is a major item in the Regional Anticorruption Programme for Africa, developed by the UNECA, in collaboration with the AUABC.

DEADLINE: October 15, 2013

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Are you in Nairobi? Connect with us

Are you in Nairobi and have passion for Permaculture, please connect with our Head of Programs Fatuma; she is attending a Teacher Training Program  with the Permacultue Research Institute. We believe the training will help improve on our food security programs in  Southwestern Uganda. 

Fatuma, GlobeMed @ASU and our staff helping build a house for an HIV/AIDS affected households

Activists warn Uganda on GMOs

By Michael Odeng

For Uganda to embrace Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is a recipe for disaster for the country, activists have cautioned.

GAIA Foundation International advocacy coordinator, Teresa Anderson, said that opening Uganda’s gates to GMOs will pose an irreversible health and environment risk to the country.

The American activist made the remarks during a workshop at Sanctum Apartment Hotel in Entebbe today Friday afternoon.

GMO plants or animals contain genes which have been artificially inserted. The highly contestable GMOs include living organisms such as seeds or plants that could alter native plants through cross-pollination.

“In a global perspective, GMOs in the country reduce agriculture productivity,” she said. She also said that the consumption of MGOs may cause side effects such as cancer and obesity.

Anderson also said that mining reduces agricultural productivity by 40% in a 20km area around the mine. “Miners dig 20 tonnes of earth and rock to get gold hence affecting agriculture.”

She added that about 1bn and 1.4bn people were hungry and obese respectively across the globe despite a surge in genetically modified (GM) crops.

“GMOs are not suitable for Uganda’s agricultural system because the country is dominated by small-scale farms and not the monstrous ones required for monoculture of GMOs.  It does not allow replanting and is expensive,” stressed Charles Olweny, VEDCO / FRA advocacy officer.

He said since GM seeds are patented by the producers, farmers will be yanked into cyclical poverty because they will have to continue buying seeds from the producers despite their small farms.

Olweny called for the shelving of the National Biosafety and Biotechnology bill on grounds that the current version was been pushed by GM seed corporate companies as a conduit to use it as a ploy to flood Uganda with GM products.

Uganda in 2008 passed a law on the use of GMs as the Biosafety and Biotechnology Act permits the use and cultivation of biotechnology crops facilitated by multinational seed companies. The Government has also embraced field trials for various GM crops.

The Government says the regulatory framework will address issues of safety in using biotechnology by providing measures to be taken to minimise risks to human health and environment arising from actual contact with GMOs.

Activists from VEDCO GAIA, NAPE, ABN, Food Rights Alliance (FRA) urged Ugandans to vehemently oppose the Bill since it has been drafted in the dark corridors without the input of the public. The Bill is awaiting the second reading in parliament.

“The Bill does not provide for labeling of GMO product thereby stifling informed consent. It does not establish risk management guidelines and schemes,” said Olweny.

In recent times, many countries across the globe have banned the use of GM foods because of the health implications associated with its use. They are Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France and Ireland.

Source 

GMO technology will enslave generations of Uganda farmers

Uganda Government right to reject proposed HIV ‘prevention drug’

By Irene Nabusoba

On August 26, 2013, the New Vision published an article about a drug that can be taken before sexual intercourse as a prevention tool under a strategy called pre-exposure prophylaxis. This proposed HIV preventive pill, is a combination of tenofovir and emtricitabine commonly referred to as Truvada’.

The article titled, ‘Government rejects HIV prevention drug,’ quoted Dr. Alex Ario, the programme coordinator of Antiretroviral therapy in the Ministry of Health (MoH) explaining how there was a proposal to introduce the controversial strategy in Uganda on grounds that it will help reduce new HIV infections.

I can’t thank the Ministry of Health enough on this move because the strategy risks destroying all the achievements we have registered as a country in the HIV fight, especially at a time when we are already struggling.

You recall that Uganda once made strong strides in the HIV fight under the Abstinence, Be faithful, or use Condoms (ABC) strategy to the extent that we became a global yardstick.

But time dictated that the campaigns needed re-enforcement from different fronts in the face of globally increasing research advances, like emergency of Antiretroviral (ARV) medicines that have given patients a second lease on life, putting the death-row fears associated with HIV and AIDS in the back row. These ARVs have also made it possible to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV under PMTCT, and now Option B+ strategy.

Then we rolled out safe male circumcision (SMC) with its benefits.

However, while we embrace everything possible to prevent HIV infections in the absence of a vaccine, too many approaches may undermine the very efforts and progress, like introduction of the proposed ‘prevention drug’.

ARVs have been hailed as ‘wonder/miracle’ drugs but without proper HIV counselling and testing, drug adherence and responsible sexual behaviour, we are witnessing a wave of increasing new HIV infections. National reports show that Uganda's HIV prevalence rates have increased from 6.4% in 2005 to 7.3% in 2012.

Reason? ‘Complacency’ is the chorus. The Uganda AIDS Commission and several policy makers have repeatedly been quoted in the media, attributing increasing risky sexual behaviour and consequent rise in HIV infections to complacency. Apparently, the public no longer considers HIV as a big threat because of availability of drugs.

And now we want to tell the increasingly ‘complacent’ population that they now have a ‘temporary’ vaccine under the proposed ‘prevention drug’!

Take an example of SMC, where many think removal of the foreskin is definite protection against HIV infection, rushing into risky sex long before they even heal, with little regard for the fact that the medical procedure simply minimises risk.

We risk shooting ourselves in the foot by proposing this drug as a preventive tool. The public tends to look to medicines for healing instead of prevention. Besides, there are imminent fears of ARV resistance because of poor adherence yet people have to commit to taking this drug every day lest they compromise even the natural immunity.  If the HIV positive ones have challenges adhering well-knowing their life depends on the drugs, what of healthy fellows?                                     

Thanks to government efforts, half of HIV positive Ugandans that are eligible for ARVs can now access them. Let us ensure that the remaining half that still have challenges accessing ARVs get them by reserving treatment to improve and prolong life for the HIV infected/exposed.

After all, research by the World Health Organisation even shows that early, effective treatment minimises risk of HIV infection by significantly lowering the viral load.  

The writer is a Public Relations Executive with Quality Chemical Industries Limited.