Data Use for Gender-Aware Health Programming Session 1: Setting the Gender Policy Context

Session 1: Learning Topics  Brief history of gender policies in the country and their impact on the health sector  Gender equality challenges to consider in health program planning  Overview of sex-disaggregated or gender- related, routine health data sources  Other gender-relevant health data sources

Brief History of Gender Equality  When did women gain the right to vote?  What is percentage of women and men in Parliament?  Are there any laws encouraging women’s involvement in government representation?  If so, when were they passed?  Is there a law against domestic violence in the country? Sexual harassment? Marital rape?  If so, when were they passed?

Examples of National Gender Policies  Senegal: Gender Parity Law enacted in 2010  Political parties must put forth an equal number of men and women on their candidate lists  Proportion of female legislators jumped from 22% in the previous parliament to 43% following 2012 elections

Examples of National Gender Laws Malawi: Women obtained the right to vote in 1960 Law against domestic violence? Yes 1. Enacted in Law against sexual harassment? No. 1 Law against martial rape? No UN Women Progress of the world’s women: In pursuit of Justice. Available at 2. United States Department of State U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices Malawi, available at:

Why is gender equality important to health?  Gender equality is associated with:  Lower child mortality, low rates of stunting and wasting  Higher rates of health care utilization for maternal, child, and reproductive health services (including STI/HIV)  Lower rates of maternal mortality  Lower rates of gender-based violence  Gender inequality is associated with more negative health outcomes

Gender and Health Programming  Provide examples of health services or programs in country that have made efforts to consider gender equality.  Provide lessons learned from the experience.

Routine Data Sources  Health Facility Data (patient information and/or service statistics)  Hospital system reports  Medical records  Patient administration reports  Community-based data (service statistics)  Program-based data (administrative)  Vital registration  Sentinel reporting/demographic surveillance  Non-health population-based data

Non-routine data sources  Household or facility-based surveys  Sentinel surveillance surveys  Behavioral surveillance surveys  Most At-Risk Population surveys  Population census  Special studies/Research  Information synthesized by other organizations  Focus groups  Research studies  Evidence-based interventions  Secondary analysis  Program or project evaluations

Gender Policy Context: Key Themes  (include a bullet point or two about the gender context in your country. Eg, Both women and men have had the right to vote since ___, but women lag behind in parliamentary representation. )  Gender equality is important for health outcomes for women, men, boys and girls.  Valuable information that can be gained from routine and non-routine data sources

MEASURE Evaluation is a MEASURE project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented by the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with Futures Group International, ICF Macro, John Snow, Inc., Management Sciences for Health, and Tulane University. Views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the U.S. Government. MEASURE Evaluation is the USAID Global Health Bureau's primary vehicle for supporting improvements in monitoring and evaluation in population, health and nutrition worldwide.