Resources

Part of the Technology Updates series, this fact sheet describes PATH's work on the Healthy Household Initiative promoting the use of latrines, water filters, clean cookstoves, solar lanterns, and bednets.

Fact sheet for onchocerciasis rapid test diagnostic project.

Fact sheet for onchocerciasis rapid test diagnostic project in French.

In this Advocacy Impact Case Study, PATH and partners used the emergence of breastfeeding as a national policy priority in South Africa to demonstrate how human milk banks could provide a safe and effective solution for vulnerable infants without access to their mothers’ breast milk. Advocates from PATH, the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa (HMBASA), South African Breastmilk Reserve, and Milk Matters provided government policymakers with evidence on the benefits of a national milk banking program throughout the late 2000s. As a result, the Tshwane Declaration, South Africa’s 2011 national policy on breastfeeding, declared the country’s support for exclusive breastfeeding and helped make human milk banking a national priority. As of early 2015, several provincial governments had also prioritized developing their own policy frameworks, adopting new technologies, and setting up milk banks to meet local needs.

In South Africa, high rates of unintended pregnancy, maternal mortality, and HIV infection make it critical for women to have access to prevention tools that meet their needs. One important tool is the female condom, which the government of South Africa has promoted through its public-sector distribution program since 1998. In 2012, the South African government launched a new National Strategic Plan on HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and tuberculosis (TB) for 2012-2016 that included ambitious female condom procurement targets. Over 18 months from 2012 to 2013, advocates from PATH and the reproductive rights advocacy group Women in Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health (WISH) Associates implemented a series of activities to maintain a steady drumbeat of attention on female condoms, to increase accountability among South African officials for procurement and programming. As a result, the South African government released its largest-ever tender for female condoms, requesting a supply of 54 million units over three years.