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PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION o EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE DIRECTING COUNCIL VE,~; SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON WOMEN, HEALTH, AND DEVELOPMENT 14th Meeting Washington. D.C.. 4-6 April 1994 Provisional Agenda Item 4 MSD14/4 (Eng.) 11 March 1994 ORIGINAL: SPANISH QUADRENNIAL REPORT 1991-1994: PROGRAM ON WOMEN, HEALTH, AND DEVELOPMENT The purpose of this document is to report on the delivery of technical cooperation under the Program on Women, Health, and Development (WHD) during the quadrennium 1991-1994. To this end, the document has been divided into three parts. The first part includes a review of the purpose of the Program, identifying the principal problems that required intervention by the Regional Program and became the point of departure for establishing the Strategic Orientations and Program Priorities (SOPPs) on women, health, and development for the four years under consideration. The report then presents the advances achieved by the Regional Program in fulfilling the established goals at the Headquarters and country levels. Finally, the document will present for consideration by the Special Subcommittee on Women, Health, and Development the prospects and recommendations for the work of the Program in 1994, requesting its approval for these lines of action. MSD14/4 (Eng.) Page 2 l CONTENTS Page 1. Program on Women, HeIalth, and Development: Identification of Needs and Formulation of Goals ................ 3 2. The Program at the Regional Level ......................... 4 3. The Program at the Country Level ......................... 6 4. Achievements, Challenges, and Lines of Action in 1994 ............ 15 e MSDI4/4 (Eng.) Page 3 1. Program on Women, Health, and Development: Identification of Needs and Formulation of Goals The Program on Women, Health, and Development (WHD), which took shape during the previous quadrennium, has as its fundamental purpose collaboration with the Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to direct actions to eliminate gender gaps in health, addressing its causes and promoting the development of women and their rights in the area of health'. As a result, the WHD Program has been conceived as a specialized program for technical cooperation with a mandate to facilitate the implementation of PAHO's strategic orientation on women, health, and development. This facilitating role started with the identification of the principal problems requiring intervention by the WHD Program, including: (a) Lack of knowledge and available information that would make it possible to document the gender gap in health and the inequity of conditions faced by women as compared to men in terms of access to, control and use of resources for health promotion and protection; (b) Limited development of methodologies and operational tools to facilitate the incorporation of gender analysis in the production of knowledge and the utilization of knowledge for implementing policies, programs and service models adapted to the needs and interests of women; (c) As a result of the above, limited recognition of the existence of the gender gap and of women's disadvantaged situation and thus, limited response and interventions by health policies, programs and projects seeking to reduce the disparities between the sexes and improve the condition of women; (d) Persistence of health approaches and interventions at the local and community levels that emphasize the traditional role of women as a vehicle and instrument for promoting the health of their children, families, and communities, to the detriment of the development of their power, leadership, and organization for defending their own interests and making autonomous decisions about their bodies and how to promote, monitor, and protect their health; Regional Program on Women, Health, and Development, Washington, D.C., September 1992. MSD14/4 (Eng.) Page 4 (e) Limited priority given to gender programs as part of public health policies and thus, a lack of resource mobilization and allocation on the part of institutions and services to address the problems mentioned above. Accordingly, the WHD Program established two broad goals for the quadrennium 1991-1994: - To strengthen institutional capacity to mobilize national and international resources for the promotion and development of women and their health; - To facilitate the formulation and evaluation of health policies, programs, and services from a gender perspective, as well as the review of legal instruments directly or indirectly affecting the health of women and their access to certain services:. 2. The Program at the Regional Level The Regional Program consists of two components: management of the Regional WHD Program and support for the WHD initiative in Central America within the framework of the project Comprehensive Health of Women in CentralAmerica (SIMCA). The following expected outcomes were integrated within these components, in accordance with the two goals set in the Strategic Orientations and Program Priorities 1991-1994 (SOPPs): - Initiatives to improve the level of knowledge and information available on gender gaps in health and the women's health situation at the regional and subregional levels and in selected countries; - Actions to strengthen the sector's institutional capacity to develop health policies, programs, and services using the gender approach; - Development of health policies, programs, and services using the gender approach in the Region; - Advocacy and promotional activities for the legal equality of women; - Strategies to mobilize, organize, and develop women's leadership abilities in promoting, protecting, and monitoring their health. 2 Strategic Orientations and Program Priorities 1991-1994. Pan American Health Organization. O MSD14/4 (Eng.) Page 5 Tables 1 to 5 contain the activities and initiatives developed to achieve the five expected outcomes indicated above. In addition, the WHD Program coordinated activities with other programs of the Secretariat: Health Policies (HDP/HDD) - Health in equitable productive transformation: differential profiles according to sex; - Comparative study of legislation on abortion and abuse against women in selected countries; - Case studies: aspects of discrimination against women in the social security systems of selected countries. Research (HDP/HDR) - Proposed plan of work to promote and develop research on women, health, and development. Health Situation Analysis (HDP/HDA) - Analysis of differentials between the sexes and gender-based inequities in epidemiological profiles. Communicable Disease Prevention and Control (HPC) - Program to support research on women, gender, and tropical diseases; - Preparation of proposal to promote multicenter research on women, gender, and tropical diseases. Health Education (HSS) - Study of sexist stereotypes in health education in selected countries; - WHD participation in subregional health education meetings in the Central American and Andean subregions; - WHD contribution to the Health Initiative for Indigenous Peoples. Health Promotion and Protection (HPP) - Regional action strategies for promoting women's health; - Andean subregional workshop on promoting women's health with communication strategies; MSD14/4 (Eng.) Page 6 Workshop on health promotion within the framework of healthy towns; development of the women's health component in the town of Baruta (Caracas, Venezuela); Regional action plan on violence and health. Maternal and Child Health and Populantion (HPM) - WHD participation in technical discussion panel on family planning and population; - Project on sex education to liberate women; - Research project on woman-friendly services: comprehensive nature of health care in selected services. Initiative with NGOs (DEC) - Women's health project with NGOs in Chile; - Organizational and technical support for meetings with NGOs in selected countries. 3. The Program at the Country Level During the quadrennium, focal points were designated within the PAHO Representative Offices to promote and monitor the goals established in the SOPPs. There has been marked progress in implementing initiatives at the national level to achieve inclusion of the gender perspective in the work of health and development. To compile the information presented below, the Representative Offices were requested to send information on achievements in each country with regard to the five expected outcomes proposed by the Program. The countries' response to this request has been significant and numerous actions have been undertaken to promote a new awareness of gender, equity, and development. The limited length of this document makes it impossible to detail the volume of activities carried out. Therefore, this section attempts to highlight some of these initiatives, presenting examples related to each anticipated result. 3.1 Initiatives to improve the level of knowledge and information available on gender gaps in health and the health situation of women at the regional and subregional levels and in selected countries Argentina: following through on its commitments regarding the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the integration of women in health and development, Argentina has taken specific national actions such as starting a MSD14/4 (Eng.) Page 7 specialization in women's studies at the School of Psychology of the University of Buenos Aires. Brazil: there are few materals and technical references available on the gender approach in Portuguese. This limits the ability to promote understanding of this