What works? Integrating gender into government health programmes in Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia

The aim of this project is to create an evidence-base of critical factors that led to gender integration in scaled and sustained government health programmes at regional or national level through a practice-based analysis of diverse cases. This is with a view to identify transferable lessons and inform current and future health programmes in the respective regions to integrate gender perspectives more effectively.

To continue to improve health outcomes and realise the achievement of gender equality in global health, namely ensuring everyone has equal opportunities to optimise their health irrespective of their gender, it is important for global actors to exchange lessons learned and hard-won solutions with one another. Yet, there is limited documentation and information sharing across diverse regional and national contexts on promising practices that promote gender integration in health programmes and health systems. Building on prior work led by UNU-IIGH (the ‘What Works in Gender and Health in the UN’ study), which analysed 14 successful cases from a multilateral perspective at headquarter and regional level, there is an opportunity to analyse and learn from regional and national examples of successful gender integration in government health programmes.

To this effect, UNU-IIGH has partnered with two leading regional public health institutes,  the School of Public Health at the University of Western Cape in South Africa and Public Health Foundation of India through its Ramalingaswami Centre on Equity and Social Determinants of Health in India, to identify and analyse promising cases of gender integration into government health programmes to understand what worked, where, for whom, why, and how.

This project aims to create an evidence-base of critical factors that led to gender integration in scaled and sustained government health programmes at regional or national level through a practice-based analysis of diverse cases. This is with a view to identify transferable lessons and inform current and future health programmes in the respective regions to integrate gender perspectives more effectively.

Mapping Potential Case Studies

• An open call was used to crowdsource potential cases, complemented by a desk review and stakeholder follow-up.
• Identified 51 potential case studies across Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, with themes ranging from gender-based violence, male involvement in health, COVID-related health service reforms, to gender-responsive vertical programmes​.
• Read more about the process in this blog.
• Explore interactive dashboard

Selecting Final Case Studies

• Screening the 51 potential case studies quickly revealed that many programmes had minimal government involvement, a larger number were active for less than one year, and few went beyond addressing health needs of a particular gender group to address gender inequalities.
• Seven programmes were chosen as part of a final shortlist of case studies based on regional representation, diversity, and long-term sustainability.
• These programs span countries like the Philippines, Timor Leste, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, and Niger, focusing on various gender integration aspects in health​​.
• Read more about the process in this blog.
• Explore interactive map of shortlisted programmes

Read the case study summary reports to find out more about the practice and key findings of factors that drove the scale and sustainability of gender integration across six case studies from Niger, Ethiopia, India, Nepal and the Philippines.
This series consists of six stand-alone summaries with key findings spanning policy, systems, institutional, and community levels. Each report contains learning about key contextual elements that gave rise to the institutionalisation of gender integration in different health programmes and policies, the enabling factors and challenges encountered, and the gender and health-related achievements. Detailed case study reports will be forthcoming in 2024.

Download the case study summary reports:

• The “Ecole des Maris” programme – bringing men into reproductive health, Niger (community level)
• The Gender Guidance Clinics of Tamil Nadu–meeting the healthcare needs of the transgender community, India (institutional level)
• Gender integration in Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center, Philippines (institutional level)
• Gender integration in medical education in Maharashtra and other states, India (systems level)
• Gender based violence service provision in primary health care, Ethiopia (systems level)
• Right to safe abortion, Nepal (policy level)

Download the presentations from the launch of the case study summary reports:

• Presentation of the case study summary reports_English
• Présentation des rapports de synthèse des études de cas_Français
• Presentación de los informes resumidos de los estudios de caso_Espanol