Tools and Resources
Advancing Gender Equality in Health Systems
CapacityPlus developed learning tools to address the challenges of gender inequalities and discrimination in the health workforce and health professional education systems and promote gender-transformative principles in advocacy, policy-making, and program
implementation.
Gender and Health Systems Strengthening
Gender and Health Systems Strengthening
This free course on the Global Health eLearning Center is authored by CapacityPlus’s Constance Newman of IntraHealth International. The course is intended to assist USAID field-based health officers, foreign service nationals, and US government partners to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in health systems strengthening efforts. By the end of the course, the learner will understand how health systems components interact with each other, how gender plays a role in each health systems component, and how to address these gender issues in health systems strengthening activities in order to improve health and social outcomes. CapacityPlus’s Crystal Ng and Ann Yang of IntraHealth International served as course managers along with Nandini Jayarajan and Lisa Mwaikambo of JHU∙CCP.
Gender Discrimination and Health Workforce Development: An Advocacy Tool
Gender Discrimination and Health Workforce Development: An Advocacy Tool
Health professional education systems play a pivotal role in developing competent, motivated health workers who are vital to the delivery of high-quality family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and other essential health services. This online tool outlines recommended combinations of gender transformative interventions to counter various forms of gender discrimination in learning environments, and provides advocacy strategies for stakeholders to develop plans to create, implement, and enforce conducive environments, equal opportunity, and nondiscrimination policies. The tool draws from a technical report and technical brief published by CapacityPlus on strengthening the health worker pipeline through gender transformative strategies.
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Promoting Gender Equality in the Health Workforce: An Advocacy Tool
Promoting Gender Equality in the Health Workforce
Health workforce leaders may not be aware of the ways in which gender discrimination impedes efforts to develop, efficiently deploy, and fairly compensate their workforce. This can result in maldistribution, absenteeism, and a limited pool of motivated health workers, which can negatively impact the provision of health care. This advocacy tool helps users to understand how common forms of gender inequalities and discrimination can negatively affect the health workforce; assess whether health workers may be experiencing one or more forms of discrimination; and successfully advocate and take action through policy-making and improved management to reduce gender discrimination and build a more motivated and effective workforce to serve the population’s family planning, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and other primary health care needs.
Strengthening the Health Worker Pipeline through Gender-Transformative Strategies
CapacityPlus Technical Brief #7 (PDF)
CapacityPlus Technical Brief #7 (Interactive Version)
CapacityPlus conducted a systematic review of 300 articles, reports, program documents, and websites on gender discrimination in higher education, including health worker preservice education. A panel of experts in gender and in human resources for health then reviewed summaries of 51 interventions identified from the literature search, according to selected characteristics of gender-transformative interventions. This technical brief provides an overview of how gender discrimination affects health professional students and faculty as well as intervention options that the expert panel identified as having potential to counter gender discrimination. In addition, it offers recommendations for preservice education institutions and other stakeholders to address these challenges. Also see the related report.
Transforming the Health Worker Pipeline: Interventions to Eliminate Gender Discrimination in Preservice Education
Transforming the Health Worker Pipeline
Governments and preservice education institutions must take action against gender barriers if they are to produce robust workforces able to respond to the health needs of the populations they serve. This report describes the results of a systematic and expert review undertaken to identify practices that have the potential to counter forms of gender discrimination against students and faculty in preservice education institutions. Also see the related technical brief.
For additional resources and publications see the Gender Equality section of the CapacityPlus Knowledge Library.