On my exhausting 24-hour flight from Washington, D.C. to Addis Ababa, I thought about all the exciting opportunities surrounding the Africa, Sexual Health and Rights conference to take place, from February 9-12--beginning with the Youth Sexuality Institute on the 7th and 8th to the Youth Reception, hosted by Advocates for Youth and International Women's Health Coalition, where youth and invited African Union Ambassadors and policymakers discuss sexual and reproductive health and rights on the 11th. 

I’ll be honest. I was so jet lagged that I didn’t even realize I was really at the Conference on Africa, Sexual Health and Rights conference until I attended the Opening Ceremony this past Tuesday evening and heard Ethiopia’s Minister of Health, Dr. Tedros Adhanom spoke critically regarding the state of Africa in addressing sexual and reproductive health and rights. Dr. Tedros admitted to say that prevention efforts are slow and that we “need to promote positive messages about sexuality that are culturally-sensitive and meaningful, particularly among youth and young women.”

From my experience of attending conferences on HIV/AIDS, reproductive justice, gender and youth issues, in countries in or regarding Africa, you’ll usually hear a focus on epidemiology, particularly the statistics like HIV prevalence rates or how we need to keep young people from having sex because sex is bad.  Well, not this time.  Instead, the focus was on shifting the gender equity framework from women as recipients of programs to leaders of movements, and promoting what often does not get recognized such as the fact that we’re living in a world of two epidemics (not one) with a common sex denominator: HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality.

All of the honorary speakers of the opening ceremony emphasized the common values of

- Driving an integrated approach to sexual and reproductive health and rights;

- Transforming traditions, cultures, and religious beliefs that views sexuality as negative and taboo to a positive, healthy, and pleasurable part of life;

- Affirming the rights of sexual minorities and discussing the decriminalization of homosexuality;

- Raising the importance of the safe and legal right for women, particularly young women to access abortion.

There was more, of course, that was crunched into the two hours of this celebratory ceremony of unity and progress for Africa. Most importantly, though, it was clear that this conference was to discuss how to dissect the social constructs that inhibit the implementation of these important steps forward in the region's sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda.

As an Ethiopian-American, growing up in traditional, conservative values surrounding sex, I often unintentionally make the assumption that Ethiopians, particularly in my parent’s generation, have similar values, especially Dr. Tedros, one who was raised in a the region where my family resides. In his speech, he recognized the rights of vulnerable populations including migrant and mobile populations, sex workers, and sexual minorities.  I can’t lie and say that I was not surprised yet ecstatic to hear him say that…almost the same way as I would be surprised to hear my own father say the same.

The ceremony concluded with the President of Ethiopia, Mr. Girma Woldegiorgis, providing a short speech to welcome participants from all over the world to Ethiopia. What struck me the most was his strong position on abstinence-only programs and that they must stay out of Africa.

Many questions came to my mind, as I immediately reminded myself that there are several contradictory policies to addressing the challenges Dr. Tedros and Presidient Woldegiorgis mentioned. These are policies that inhibit our work to ensure reproductive and sexual health and rights of all Africans, and still remain in Ethiopia and in most (if not all) parts of Africa:

1) homosexuality is illegal, and often penalized from sentence to prison to even death;

2) sex work is illegal and punishable by law;

3) the Office Global AIDS Coordinator, essentially the head of U.S. global HIV/AIDS initiative, PEPFAR, still mandates a reporting requirement for countries to report prevention expenditures according to ABC funding streams, instead of comprehensive programs;

4) funding for reproductive health/family planning programs globally is still only a tiny, percent in comparison to HIVAIDS programs, even when we know maternal mortality is the leading cause of death among women ages 15-19 in low and middle-income countries;

For example, in 2008, the U.S. provided 3.6 billion in HIV/AIDS funding in focus countries v. 67.5 MILLion for RH/FP programs in focus countries); and,

5) access to safe abortion services is often limited only to women who face life-threatening conditions or rape.

So how are we going to enusre sexual minorities’ rights to comprehensive information and services in countries like Ethiopia, if homosexuality is illegal and can sentence you to up to 5 years in prison?

How can we prevent maternal mortality if fifteen-year olds are pregnant, demand to have an abortion but are unable to access legal and safe services?

My hope is that this conference recognizes the contradictory policies and negative constructs of society that prevent us from addressing the challenges that Dr. Tedros and President Woldegiorgis mentioned in their speech.

We can’t just simply discuss these issues, when there are laws and policies in direct opposition and hindrance of our work.  I’m looking forward to carrying out these discussions for the rest of the week, and I'd love to hear from you all!

Stay tuned on Amplify and you’ll be sure to read another blog from Mimi!