A panel of international experts from many organizations, formed by the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID), recently defined "gender-sensitive"
reproductive health programs as those that "actively involve women and men in
prioritizing their own reproductive health needs, concerns and reproductive health
intentions."
According to the USAID Gender Working Group's subcommittee on program implementation,
there are many specific features of a "gender-sensitive" program, including the
following. Such programs:
- Involve women in identifying, prioritizing and resolving their own reproductive health
needs.
- Involve women's partners and promote male responsibilities.
- Empower women to change their status within the home and the community through income
generation, literacy and political participation.
- Address social, economic and physical barriers to access for women and men.
- Address domestic violence, emotional and physical abuse, and the threat of abandonment.
- Provide a broad range of services and interventions to women and men's
reproductive needs and intentions.
- In designing programs, allow time for participatory process to hear community needs.
- Focus on clients' reproductive health needs, instead of demographic goals only.
- Address sexual health and needs for sex education.
- Include women at the policy-making level.
- Pursue the framework outlined at the 1994 International Population and Development
Conference in Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
- Recognize how gender affects male/female relationships and existing inequities.
-- Barbara Barnett
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