Operationalizing a Rights-Based Approach to Health: Building on Existing Efforts in East Africa

Bjørg Sandkjær is a senior advisor in the Department of Health, Education and Research at Norad, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. She will be speaking on, “Operationalizing a rights-based approach to health: Building on existing efforts in East Africa”.Bjorg has extensive experience working on issues related to health in general and sexual and reproductive health and rights, in her native Norway as well as on the African continent. Between 2003 - 2007 she worked on population and social development issues at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she also served in the secretariat for the UN Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa. She has published a number of book chapters and journal articles mainly on the interface between health, particularly HIV and AIDS, governance, livelihoods, and human security, and co-edited the book “AIDS and Governance”.