$500m maternal, newborn health fund launched for sub-Saharan Africa
A group of philanthropies including the Gates Foundation has set up a fund backed with nearly $500m (R9.26bn) to help save the lives of newborn babies and mothers in sub-Saharan Africa, standing out against a bleak global health funding landscape.
The Beginnings Fund was launched on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the home of another key backer — the UAE's recently established Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity. The project has been in the works for at least a year, but its role has become more important as governments worldwide follow the US in pulling back from international aid, CEO Alice Kang'ethe told Reuters in an interview.
'It is an opportune moment,' she said earlier this month, stressing the fund aimed to work with African governments, experts and organisations rather than parachuting in experts or technologies, an approach she said differed from many traditional donor programmes.
'Two generations ago women in the UAE used to die during childbirth. More than half of children did not survive past childhood,' said Tala Al Ramahi at the Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation, adding the lessons learnt in what worked to change those outcomes would help inform the effort.
The Beginnings Fund aims to save the lives of 300,000 mothers and newborn babies by 2030 and expand quality care for 34-million mothers and babies.
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Two researchers explain the disinformation tactics used by Christian fundamentalist groups to attack transgender and gender-diverse people. Christian fundamentalist organisations are tailoring deliberate anti-transgender messaging in South Africa and other African countries, framing 'gender ideology' as a form of attack on them. Why is this happening? The anti-transgender language is explicitly developed to deliver a message that transgender people are a threat to cisgender women's rights and safety, and to the family, and they disseminate that message to the public with pseudoscientific messaging. The disinformation is deliberate, designed to question the existence of transgender and gender-diverse people and justify discrimination against them. Dr Ingrid Lynch is an independent researcher and research fellow at Rhodes University with years of experience and published peer-reviewed papers about gender. In one of her reports, she notes that these groups primarily leverage religious fundamentalist narratives in two key ways: by positioning themselves as defenders of the ordained 'natural' or 'traditional' family. However, in South Africa, less than a third of families conform to this narrow two-cisgender heterosexual biological parent model. The notion of protecting the family, Lynch argues, is really about exclusion – about determining who does and does not deserve social and policy protections. 'Ultimately, this 'pro-family' messaging excludes most South African families and undermines any real support for their wellbeing,' says Lynch. Common entry points for fundamentalist groups have included opposition to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE), the rights of LGBTIQ persons and their families, and safe and legal abortion. But in recent years there has been a sharp increase in opposition to the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people, especially regarding access to gender-affirming healthcare. 'There are still people who have prejudiced ideas about homosexuality and gender diversity. But this Global North anti-trans rhetoric is not organic. It is fermented in countries like the US and UK and exported to African countries. It comes back to Christian nationalism and the far right. These movements promote a narrow vision of national identity tied to conservative religious values. 'There is a rigid idea of what a family should look like, which for so long was used against same-sex marriage and LGBTQI+ rights. That is being bolstered again to attack the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people. This very particular idea of what a family should look like, within that ideology, does not accommodate gender diversity. 'Because it is rooted in a very patriarchal system, we are seeing how the rights of not only trans women but also cisgender women are being eroded again. These groups cling to the patriarchal gender binary and the traditional view of women, often tied to white supremacist ideas about race and national identity. In the US you see it at political rallies where they talk about the great replacement theory – a conspiracy claiming that certain groups are being 'replaced' demographically – and pronatalism,' says Lynch. It is an absolute and violent reinforcement of the gender binary. Jenna-Lee de Beer-Procter, a clinical psychologist and researcher, who provides mental healthcare to transgender and gender-diverse people, says: 'Gender diversity unsettles the dominant order. 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'If they genuinely cared about transgender and gender-diverse children, they would care about them not being discriminated against. And they would accept the fact that they exist. They want to delay care and withhold any affirmation in the hope that it will go away. This leaves a child with no support. Instead, focus on ensuring that transgender youth don't have to face bullying in schools, and on creating a sense of belonging and safety regardless of a child's gender identity. It is heartbreaking that this argument is used,' says Lynch. De Beer de Beer-Procter adds: 'The harm done is immense. When care is delayed, distress increases. When identity is doubted, trust breaks down. And when young people are forced to prove they are 'really' trans before being believed, they learn that support is conditional and that they must perform their pain in just the right way to be taken seriously. Many give up. Some are forced to seek care in unsafe or underground ways. Others simply learn to disappear. 'What gets called caution is often a refusal to see – or to listen. And while it may protect institutions or adults from feeling uncertain, it leaves trans youth alone in their pain. That's not protection. That's abandonment,' they say. Questioning gender-affirming care under the guise of 'concern' within a society which privileges cisgender people over transgender people is anything but neutral. Power is not distributed evenly when certain groups are afforded more visibility, legitimacy and safety than others – not always because they ask for it, but because systems have been built around their experiences and assumptions. Cisgender people occupy this dominant position. They are not asked to prove their identities, explain their pronouns or justify the healthcare they receive. Their gender is taken for granted as 'normal', 'natural' and the 'default'. Trans people, by contrast, are consistently positioned as questionable. De Beer de Beer-Procter explains: 'Our identities are scrutinised. Our access to care is debated. Our presence in schools, hospitals and public life is treated as controversial. In this context, so-called neutrality doesn't create balance – it reinforces stigma. And it sets back the hard-fought progress we've made in securing gender-affirming care, legal recognition and the basic right to exist without being treated as a problem to solve. What's more, the 'concern' being expressed is rarely based on accurate information. Gender-affirming care is routinely misrepresented as rushed, reckless or automatic – as though thousands of children are being hurried into life-altering decisions. 'But this is simply not true. In South Africa, access to gender-affirming care is already extremely limited. Public provision exists in only a handful of clinics, often with yearslong waiting lists. Only one public clinic in the entire country offers support to trans youth. In the private sector, trained endocrinologists, social workers and mental health professionals are few and far between – and the costs place them far out of reach for most families,' says De Beer-Procter. 'Feminists' to the rescue? Some so-called feminists are also claiming that their rights are in danger. Describing themselves as 'gender critical feminists', they don't support the rights of transgender people. Most notable is JK Rowling, with Helen Zille recently echoing similar talking points in a social media post. 'I don't call them feminists because there is nothing feminist about their views. By upholding deeply misogynistic beliefs, they become complicit in their own oppression,' says Lynch. 'They can't see how something like bathroom bans against trans women is going to hurt all women. Do we really want cisgender women to have to prove that they are 'feminine' enough to be recognised as women? Are we okay with the fact that these gender-critical groups want us to police all women, including cisgender women? They are not feminists, they are not recognising that this absolute attack on transgender women is enforcing patriarchal oppression.' Lynch stresses that protecting rights is not a competition. 'We can and should all fight for cisgender women's rights – in the workplace, in reproductive justice and to ensure safety.' She points out that globally the leading cause of physical and psychological harm to women is violence within their intimate partnerships. 'But this particular flavour of so-called feminism is rooted in whiteness, it is not intersectional. It overlooks the experiences of women facing multiple and overlapping forms of oppression, including those often marginalised within feminist spaces. They cannot see beyond their own privilege. If they could, they would look at the data and fight for the urgent issues affecting all women.' The evidence is there The claim that there's a 'lack of evidence' is one of the most common, and most misleading, arguments used to question gender-affirming care. De Beer-Procter explains: 'We have longitudinal studies, clinical audits, qualitative research and systematic reviews that all point to the same thing: gender-affirming care improves mental health outcomes, reduces distress and increases wellbeing – especially when it's timely, respectful and affirming. 'But no amount of evidence will ever feel like 'enough' to people who aren't actually looking for evidence. For many of the most vocal critics, the real issue isn't about data; it's about belief – that everyone is either male or female, that this is fixed at birth, and that it reflects some 'biological truth'. 'But that belief doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It's not supported by science, and it's certainly not reflective of lived reality. 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Early this month, the Quarter 1 2025 quarterly Labour Force Survey from Statistics South Africa reported that youth unemployment has risen by over 10 percentage points in the last 10 years, indicating that young people aged 15-34 face an unemployment burden of 46.1%, which has gone up from 36.9% recorded in 2015. This comes as Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie recently courted controversy when he said that the country's unemployment rate, which was 32.9% for the first quarter, would be closer to 10% if self-employed people and those working in informal markets were counted. Last month, Sibanyoni, who presented her research findings in a webinar hosted by the NSMSA, indicated that 82.8% of young African women in impoverished areas were engaging in sexual relationships with older men, adding that there is reliable evidence of psychological impact on some of them. 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Sibanyoni's study also uncovered that there is a common thread of early relationships with absent or unreliable caregivers that influences an individual's ability to form and maintain emotional bonds in adulthood. The lack of financial dependability on caregivers causes the young women to develop a dependency and need for security. Reacting to the insights from the NSMSA and Sibanyoni's findings, Siyabulela Monakali, spokesperson for Ilitha Labantu, an anti-GBVF movement, confirmed a "devastating and heartbreaking" link between high levels of youth unemployment and transactional sex. Monakali stated that this has made the situation unbearable for women and young girls. "South Africa's youth unemployment rate, currently at an alarming 63.9%, according to Stats SA, creates a harsh reality for many young women and girls, especially in townships and vulnerable communities. Without access to economic opportunities, they often face the impossible choice of relying on transactional sexual relationships to meet their basic needs. "What is deeply troubling is that perpetrators are fully aware of this vulnerability. They exploit young women's desperate situations, using their economic power to control and manipulate them. This is not a matter of choice or agency. It is a reflection of systemic failure to provide the economic and social safety nets that young women deserve," he said. Sibanyoni indicated that her research was influenced by social media trends amid the rise of the blesser culture over the last few years. "I was also intrigued by the use of the hashtag #blessed on social media platforms such as X and Facebook. I began to wonder who was 'blessing' the lifestyles of these young women. When I discovered that 'blessers' were financing or 'blessing' young women, I became curious about the psychological effects of these intergenerational sexual relationships (blesser-blessee relationships). This curiosity drove me to explore the phenomenon more deeply and gain a comprehensive understanding of its impact." Cape Argus
