Aim of the Project

The project aims to enhance the capacity of individuals and communities to understand and take action to realize the right to health and health care in South Africa. We anticipate that a successful campaign will result in:

(a) better access to and quality of health care and health related services for people in South Africa;

(b) fewer violations of the right to health; and

(c) stronger CSO’s able to lobby, advocate and organize with communities around their rights to health.

Objectives of the Project

The objectives of the project include:

• To raise awareness in South Africa of what constitutes health: not only health services but also the range of basic services and relationships that are the determinants of good health. The campaign would therefore advance people’s understanding of how the right to health can be operationalised, not just in health care, but also in the provision of services that generate the conditions necessary for good health.
  
  
• To strengthen civil society organizations in health. Currently, civil society in the health sector is much weakened compared to the 1980’s when organizations campaigning for the right to health were a central component of the mass democratic movement. The campaign will seek to help re-establish vibrant civil society groups in the health sector.
  
  
• To enable communities and ordinary South Africans have a meaningful say in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies, particularly related to resource allocation, affecting government, NGO and private sectors.  It is important to show that alternative models of affordable, accessible, acceptable and high quality health systems are possible and provide the building blocks for these policies. The campaign should give meaning to the right to participation by giving people a voice.
  
  
• To enable South African organizations to link up with national, regional and international networks of like-minded health groups as part of the campaign, enabling sharing of learning and best practice, thereby building both international solidarity and the capacity to advance the right to health