Seminar Recording: Using Health Data for Developing Gender Responsive Policies

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Seminar Recording: Using Health Data for Developing Gender Responsive Policies

1 hour 24 minutes

This seminar provides a framework for integrating gender into health policy development using the WHO gender assessment scale. Speakers discuss examples of data to policy efforts using a gender lens from non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and gender-based violence prevention.

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Key takeaways

Many broad, population-level policies based on data that seem gender-neutral are actually missing the hardest-to-reach populations of women, girls, and non-binary people because they are based on the needs of and data collected from men and boys.
In order to effectively use health data with a gender lens to impact policymaking, the data must show that a health inequity: exists for women, girls and/or people who are non-binary; is of high public health importance; has modifiable underlying root causes based in gender analysis; and that the proposed intervention or policy can address the problem.
Government stakeholders should be involved from the outset to identify gender-responsive priorities and engage in policy dialogue and a joint search for gender equitable solutions. Shared ownership increases uptake of findings and the development of equitable policy solutions.

This seminar first aired live on April 21st, 2022

Moderator: Joseph Ali, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health

Speakers:

Ruxana Jina, Director, Data Impact Program, Vital Strategies
Anne Stangl, Gender Equity Unit, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Fatima Marinho, Principal Technical Advisor, Vital Strategies, Brazil

Some attempts to address gender equity through policy have only been successful at maintaining the status quo while continuing to overlook the health needs of underserved women, girls, and non-binary people. Oftentimes policies that are considered gender-neutral, targeting specific subpopulations without explicitly calling out gender factors, are in reality designed based on the needs and data collected from men and boys. Health policies developed without a gender lens can lead to unmet health needs and preventable deaths. We need to integrate a gender lens into policymaking efforts from start to finish by collaborating across sectors and ministries, developing gender-responsive policies and programs that benefit the health of all.

Steering committees that include a diverse set of traditional and nontraditional collaborators have been shown to be an effective tool for generating evidence-based, gender-equitable policies.

TAGS:

BrazilData ImpactData2PolicyPolicySouth Africa

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GENDER EQUITY UNIT