Advocacy
DSW’s advocacy efforts concentrate on stressing the need for improved health information, services and supplies, coupled with sufficient, stable health financing from both the government and its development partners.
We Give a Voice to Sexual and Reproductive Health in Berlin
DSW maintains a constant exchange with political decision-makers in the German Bundestag and the Ministries, as well as with partners from economics, research and civil society networks. In this way, we actively shape policy-making to sustainably improve the situation of people living in developing countries. These contacts are mainly maintained through our Berlin office. The experiences we gain in our local development projects make us a competent partner. We consult the German government mainly in the field of sexual and reproductive health, but also in ques¬tions related to family planning, HIV/AIDS, poverty-associated and neglected diseases or the promotion of adolescents and in particular girls in developing countries.
DSW supports the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Population and Development organisationally as well as in content-related questions. Within the framework of the APPG, we offer advice to the members of the German Bundestag and organize expert meetings. We closely coordinate our activities with our Brussels liaison office and our country offices in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to achieve our goals at national and international level.
In addition, we initiate public relations campaigns and organise events on topics relating to our work.
All Party Parliamentary Group
DSW’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on SRHR, the Parliamentary Group on Population and Development – founded in 2003 – works to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Cairo Plan of Action (PoA) are implemented. To this end, the APPG, consisting of Members of Parliament from all political parties represented in the German Bundestag, organises hearings, resolutions and public events in the German Parliament to motivate the German government to sustain and scale up its support for SRHR and the Cairo PoA as a means to achieve the MDGs.
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Africa’s Demographic Challenges: An advocacy and Awareness Raising Campaign
Sub-Saharan Africa is the poorest region of the world. 74 per cent of its population live on less than two dollars a day. Rapid population growth is one of the biggest obstacles in fighting extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The health and educational system as well as the food situation already are under considerable strain. With more people having to be provided for in the following years the strain will increase. Africa has the highest population dynamics of the world – according to the latest United Nations projections the African population probably will double by 2015. A lot of women get more children than they wish to get as in many cases they don’t have access to modern methods of family planning. Universal access to sexual and reproductive health is essential to reduce poverty and to enable a sustainable development in Africa.
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