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Browse POLICY Project (1995-2006) Materials

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Gender

HP+ More recent Gender publications are available.

  • Involving men in reproductive healthcare could help Cambodia achieve some major development goals, such as a decreased maternal mortality rate and an increased contraceptive prevalence rate. Involving men could also help reduce the overall prevalence of HIV/AIDS—an outcome possible only if men are involved not just as clients of RH care but also as partners, service providers, policymakers, teachers, and project managers. Until today, male involvement in RH in Cambodia has been relatively underdeveloped. Despite the availability of a few contraceptive methods for men, maternal and child health (MCH) programs provide most RH care, strategic plans and services lack indicators for men, and most service providers are not equipped or trained to accommodate male clients. RH facilities tend to be female-oriented; as a result, men are often reluctant to avail themselves of services. Men’s reluctance to access RH care can also mean that barriers to accessing health, such as distance and cost, which affect both men and women, are even more influential in preventing men from seeking RH counseling or treatment or even seeking services as partners. To expand and strengthen male involvement in reproductive health in Cambodia, this report offers the following recommendations: • A set of guidelines to mainstream male involvement need to be developed and distributed. • Agencies interested in implementing male involvement in reproductive health must plan for a long-term commitment. • Campaigns need to be implemented that educate seemingly “low-risk” social and demographic groups. • Current education campaigns need to be reviewed in the context of male involvement and should not, for example, reinforce gender inequities or the notion that condom use is restricted only to high-risk situations. • Existing services should be made more “male-friendly,” with service providers undergoing additional training and engaging in effective outreach activities. • The private health sector should be directly involved in efforts that foster male involvement.
    English
    MaleInvolv_Cam.pdf

  • The right to own and inherit property is a crosscutting right that traverses the realm of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. This right is central to the true empowerment of everyone in society (men, women, boys and girls) and is a key developmental right. It is the common right to all societies and cultures. It is central to securing the dignity of all members of the society. Emerging legal and social trends, as they relate to the ownership and inheritance of property, indicate a practice that has largely worked out to the detriment of women in virtually all communities and social classes in Kenya. They include the laws relating to property, to marriage and dissolution of marriage, land registration systems, and the social and cultural attitudes that determine the actual enjoyment of these rights. Compounding the problem is the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has caused massive destitution, displacements, blame-passing and mistrust in nearly all communities in Kenya. The high stigma associated with it has increased the vulnerability of women in this regard. In no other community in Kenya is the twin problem of societal and cultural practices - which discriminate against women and thereby translate into widespread of HIV/AIDS - more stark than within Luo Nyanza. It is against the backdrop of the realisation of this continuing trend of violation of womens (especially, but by no means limited to widows) right to property ownership and inheritance rights and the urgency of the problem in the face of HIV/AIDS pandemic that the POLICY Project  Kenya ( funded by the Futures Group) and Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) (funded by the Governance Justice Law and Order Sector reform program) came together inspired by the same need to work on enhancing the enjoyment of this right by women in Kenya.
    English
    KEN_InheritanceRights.pdf

  • Glossary of definitions relating to gender and health.
    Spanish
    GuateGlos.pdf

  • Spanish
    MEX_GenHIV_Agenda.pdf

  • The National AIDS Control Council has realized the need to mainstream gender issues in programmes/projects since mainstreaming gender issues in the planning, implementation and evaluation of programmes strengthens the effectiveness of the response to HIV and AIDS. The overall goal of this toolkit is to sensitise policy and senior level decision makers on key HIV, AIDS, and Gender issues. It offers guidelines to use when planning and formulating gender responsive policies and programmes relating to HIV and AIDS.
    English
    KEN_GenderToolkit.pdf

  • In many countries around the world, the majority of new infections are occurring in women, particularly adolescents and young adults. Developing appropriate responses to the gender issues that continue to make both women and men vulnerable to HIV is critical to all efforts to prevent HIV transmission, improve care and support for PLWHA and their families, and mitigate the impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This publication provides program planners with practical, field-based insights on integrating gender into HIV/AIDS programs. The publication's guidelines, examples of promising responses, and analysis of gaps emerged from in-depth interviews with nearly 60 program officers from USAID and its partners during 2001 and 2002. The Gender and HIV/AIDS Task Force of the Interagency Gender Working Group supplemented insights gained from these interviews with other literature reviews to produce this synthesis document.
    English
    HowToIntegrGendrHIV.pdf

  • During the process of formulating the Kenya National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan, some of the gender dimensions of the epidemic had been recognised. It was noted that a striking feature of the epidemic was its impact on women as compared to men; the incidence of HIV/AIDS among women was rising at a shocking rate and women were being infected at an earlier age than men were. However, explicit strategies that focused specifically on gender issues were not included in the development of policies or programmes under the five priority areas. In 2001, as the gender aspects of the epidemic became clearer and it was recognised that gender was playing a crucial role in the dynamics of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the National AIDS Control Council established a Technical Sub-Committee on Gender and HIV/AIDS Task Force. It was agreed that the best approach would be to engender the existing Kenya National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan because it is the key document that guides and co-ordinates all responses to HIV/AIDS in Kenya. The Technical Sub-Committee’s mandate was to formulate guidelines and create a strategic framework through which gender concerns could be integrated into the analyses, formulation and monitoring of policies and programmes relating to the five priority areas of the Kenya National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan so as to ensure that the beneficial outcomes are shared equitably by all – women, men, boys and girls. The gender analysis and mainstreaming strategies contained in this document are centrally informed by two National AIDS Control Council commissioned field studies carried out in October 2001 and May 2002. The findings of the field studies illustrate how different attributes and roles societies assign to males and females profoundly affect their ability to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and cope with its impact. Examples range from the gender issues that render both men and women vulnerable to HIV infection to the ways in which gender influences men and women’s responsibility for, and access to, treatment, care and support. The findings from the field studies and the resulting gender analyses illustrate that gender roles and relations powerfully influence the course and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gender-related factors shape the extent to which men, women, boys and girls are vulnerable to HIV infection, the ways in which AIDS affects them, and the kinds of responses that are feasible in different communities and societies. The control of the spread of HIV/AIDS is dependent on the recognition of women’s rights in all spheres of life and therefore, women’s empowerment is an important tool in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Because the HIV/AIDS pandemic is fuelled by gender inequalities, a proactive engendered response is required to minimise its impact. It is through this document that the Technical Sub- Committee on Gender hopes to ensure that the gender dimension of the HIV/AIDS epidemic does not remain just an intellectual idea, but through the identified strategies becomes a practical tool for guiding policy decisions and programming for all activities under the umbrella of the Kenya National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan for 2000 - 2005.
    English
    Kenya_NACC_Gender.pdf

  • Reproductive Health Promotion Working Group advocacy material
    English
    CAM_MaleInvolveEng.pdf

  • In October 2002, under the slogan "South African Men Care Enough to Act", a National Men's Imbizo was held bringing some 400 men together from around the country to bring awareness to the need for men's involvement in HIV/AIDS. At this meeting, an Interim National Task Team was elected as a first organizational step towards the formation of a broad-based countrywide men's forum. Coordinating the responses of the men's sector is considered paramount to developing effective strategies in the four priority areas identified in the HIV/AIDS and STD Strategic Plan for South Africa (2000-2005): • Prevention • Treatment, care and support • Human and legal rights, and • Research, monitoring and evaluation In February 2003, following the Imbizo, a meeting was held between the Government AIDS Action Plan (national and provincial structures), the USAID-funded POLICY Project and the men’s sector national working group to plan the next steps. Based on outcomes of the Imbizo (see South African Men Care Enough to Act: Report on the National Men's Imbizo on HIV/AIDS, 2002) the decision was made to further engage the men's sector through a series of consultative workshops at the provincial level. These would follow on from provincial report-back meetings held after the Imbizo, strengthening the involvement of men in HIV/AIDS activities. The workshops would, as part of the government's broader Partnership Against AIDS programme, create a solid platform for discussion and collaboration in the men's sector. Through the establishment of provincially-coordinated men's networks, it is hoped this crucial sector will begin to play a more constructive, holistic and influential role in rising to the social and cultural challenges presented by HIV/AIDS. Provincial workshops would provide the men with an opportunity to develop coherent plans to guide their actions as individuals, as groups, and as partners with other sectors. This report documents the process and outcomes of these provincial meetings.
    English
    SA_mensprovince.pdf

  • Brochure on maternal mortality and women's status in Haiti.
    French
    Mor.PDF

  • This study documents experiences and analyzes the underlying causes and factors related to availability, access, effectiveness, and gaps in health services for women living with HIV or AIDS. The report also provides recommendations for formulating a sensitive and appropriate response to the healthcare needs of women living with HIV/AIDS and improving HIV prevention.
    English
    MEX_WomenLWHA.pdf

  • Seizing the Moment: An Advocacy Kit for GBV Policy Change is a practical toolkit directed to NGO leaders, researchers, advocates, and others who work on the issue of gender-based violence (GBV) around the world. While numerous resources are available to those who work on GBV as a social issue, the POLICY Project saw the need for a specific product that helps advocates use data to build support for increasing resources for GBV programming. The Advocacy Kit was prepared by the POLICY Project under USAID Contract No. HRN-00-00-00006-00. POLICY Project is implemented by the Futures Group in collaboration with the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) and Research Triangle Institute (RTI). Components of the Advocacy Kit include: · Responding to GBV: A Focus on Policy Change – A 33-slide PowerPoint presentation is provided on CD-ROM that builds a case for an improved policy response to GBV. The presentation seeks to raise awareness about the societal costs of GBV and propose solutions to address the issue. It defines GBV and related myths and realities, unpacks GBV as a public health and development issue, and explores the specific costs of the phenomenon on society. The presentation serves as a template and provides sample policy recommendations to address GBV. The presenter is encouraged to adapt the PowerPoint to his/her own country setting, using local GBV data where available. · Responding to GBV: A Focus on Policy Change – A Companion Guide The companion guide is included to support the advocate as s/he prepares to deliver the PowerPoint presentation. A first section about setting the stage looks at potential audiences, advocacy entry points, and presentation tips. The second section provides detailed guidance to the presenter about how to adapt the presentation’s content to a specific country setting using available data sources. Finally, the companion guide includes a set of speaker’s notes—a suggested narrative script that the presenter can rely on, if s/he so chooses. · Understanding the Issue: An Annotated Bibliography on GBV This 28-page bibliography was prepared in January 2006 to reflect the most current publications and materials concerned with gender-based violence—most of which are available on the World Wide Web. Documents include basic information about the prevalence and nature of GBV, training tools, reviews of promising interventions to address GBV, and how-to guides for service providers to improve the health sector response to GBV.
    English
    gbv

  • This report describes the National Men's Imbizo on HIV/AIDS held October 4-5, 2002. The purpose of the imbozo was to mobilize and senstize men to become more active in HIV/AIDS activities, and to encourage networking between these men.
    English
    Mens_Imbizo.pdf

  • The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo stressed the importance of gender and noted that reproductive health programs should be implemented from a gender perspective. However, little has been written about how reproductive health programs that focus on improving quality of care and access to care can integrate gender. This paper describes the experiences of three types of programs (government, reproductive health NGO, and women’s health NGO) in Kenya, India, and Guatemala that integrate gender in their work and examines how they integrate gender into programs that improve quality of care and access to care. It should be emphasized that this report does not document whether gender integration results in higher quality and access, but rather documents how gender integration can take place. This report is based on data that were collected in the three countries, through interviews with a total of 27 program staff and 34 providers and through focus groups with 136 clients. These three types of programs engage clients in the clinic and community setting in a manner closely related to their mandates and perspectives on gender. In the government and reproductive health (RH) NGOs, the emphasis is on quality and access, with gender included as a means to reach those goals. The women’s NGOs have the mandate to first promote gender equity (primarily through women’s empowerment), and also to use it as a means to promote reproductive health care. The organizations with the strongest internal gender policies, namely the women’s and RH NGOs, are also the most committed to integrating gender into their programs for clients. The RH NGOs are most committed to gender equity or equal participation of women and men in the organization.
    English
    GAQsynthesis.pdf

  • This report shares findings from a pilot of the POLICY Project’s Gender Equitable Male Involvement (GEMI) Assessment Tool. In October 2002, the POLICY Project used the GEMI tool to conduct an assessment of the policy environment related to gender-equitable male involvement in Jamaica, with a focus on male youth. Based on interviews with key stakeholders from a cross-section of government, civil society, and youth-serving organizations, the assessment sought to describe the current policy environment related to gender-equitable male involvement, and identify priority areas for developing or strengthening policies to support gender-equitable male involvement, and the related advocacy and policy dialogue, information, and capacity building needed to support this.
    English
    GEMI_Pilot_Jam.pdf