bureau of women’s health and gender analysis
DESCRIPTION
Bureau of Women’s Health and Gender Analysis. Bureau pour la santé des femmes et l’analyse comparative entre les sexes. Health Systems Strengthening Seminar Belize City, May 30 -June 1st, 2006 Gender-Sensitive Indicators in Health Policies and Systems - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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BWHGA BSFACS
Bureau of Women’s Health and Gender Analysis
Bureau pour la santé des femmes et l’analyse comparative entre les sexes
Health Systems Strengthening Seminar Belize City, May 30 -June 1st, 2006
Gender-Sensitive Indicators in Health Policies and Systems Mireille Kantiebo, BWHGA, Health Canada
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OVERVIEW
Federal Commitments to Gender Equality
Health Indicators Framework
Health Canada’s Women’s Health Indicators Initiative
Reflections and learnings about gender-sensitive indicators in health policies and systems
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1995 Federal Plan for Gender Equality 1999 Health Canada’s Women’s Health Strategy 2000 Health Canada’s GBA Policy 2000-2005 Agenda for Gender Equality
Recommendations of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women
Some Key Federal Government Commitments to Gender Equality and Gender-Based Analysis (GBA)
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Gender-based AnalysisGENDERthe socially constructed roles, relationships, values, attitudes, and forms of power that are commonly attributed to either men or women; includes self-representation
SEXthe genetic,
biological and physiological
characteristics and processes that
generally distinguish males
and females
Interrelated through complex pathways
Note: DIVERSITY analysis overlays GBA
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BWHGA BSFACSGBA & Health Determinants Income &
social statusEmployment/Working Conditions
Education andliteracy
Social environments
Physical environmentsHealthy
child development
Personal health practices and coping skills
Health services
Social support
networks
Culture
GENDE
R
Biology and genetics
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BWHGA BSFACSCanadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada Indicators Framework
Source: Health Indicators Conceptual Framework: Background Paper, March 2001, Available from the Canadian Institute for Health Information
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Sources of Indicators data
Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
Statistics Canada
Health Canada/Public Health Agency of Canada
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What are health indicators used for?
Accountability reporting to Canadians
Health surveillance
Policy research / Program Development
Evaluation
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Health Indicators in Accountability Reporting
Accountability and provision of information was identified as a commitment made by First Ministers
Health Canada works in collaboration with F/P/T representatives in the development of comparable indicators
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Women’s Health Indicators (WHI) Initiative BWHGA leadership role in fostering development of health indicators sensitive to gender and diversity
Response to key commitments and strategic directions adopted by the BWHGA through HC’s WHS (1999) and GBA policy (2000)
Complementing Statistics Canada and CIHI health inidcators framework as well as First Ministers’ commitment to report to Canadians
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VISION:
To ensure that gender and diversity perspectives are included and integrated in the broader indicators reporting systems
GOAL:
To ensure that targeted health policies and interventions are based on more comprehensive (sex, gender and diversity) indicators of health by promoting effective tracking and regular reporting of health and disease among women in Canada to help improve women’s health
WHI Initiative – Con’d
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WHY Gender and diversity perspectives?
To understand the interrelationships between social context, biological endowment and health outcomes for women, men, boys and girls
To capture the gender differences in health among diverse sub-groups of the population
To contribute to improving women and men’s health outcomes through enhanced reporting systems, policies and programs
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WHI initiative - Process outline Identifying key players/stakeholders Establishing Working Groups/Advisory Committees Environmental scan and gap analysis Holding consultations Developing Requests for Proposals to fill identified
gaps Funding external research Developing a dissemination strategy Promoting the use of gender-sensitive indicators to
inform health policies/programs
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Making health indicators gender sensitive… Address conceptual, theoretical and empirical issues
in understanding health and illness, and in describing gender relations
Address technical issues associated with indicator data definition, collection and analysis
Identify an appropriate conceptual framework for understanding health which links health determinants and health outcomes and includes gender as a central component;
Establish criteria for gender sensitive indicators
(adapted from V. Lin, January 2005 )
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Using gender-sensitive health indicators: Case example of application
Applying a gender lens to health services utilization:Sex Differences in Use of Health Care: Manitoba
Frequently women are described as using health care services more than men, yet when visits to doctors and hospital admission rates are analyzed by sex and gender other information comes to light. Females do visit physicians more often than males but when visits for pregnancy, birth, and other reproductive health reasons are excluded, this difference is cut in half, and women’s hospitalization rates become lower than those of men – MCHP 2005
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Progress to Date…Canada has made a number of investments in health information
A great number of indicators are available to help inform policy and program decisions on a wide variety of health issues and to report on the health of Canadians
However, there are persistent gaps in health information that need to be addressed
Health Canada is funding two external research projects on gender-sensitive health indicators
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Key Challenges to Moving Forward…
Enhancing our conceptualizations of the causal pathways by which social and economic circumstances affect health outcomes
Fostering capacity-building that augment the understanding of gender as a central component of health policy making
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Moving Forward…
Engage with key stakeholders across sectors to build a comprehensive set of gender-sensitive health indicators to track changes over time in health status and in health care system performance
Promote the use of standardized performance measurement frameworks for a regular assessment and monitoring of health and gender equity, using a core set of quantitative and qualitative gender-sensitive health indicators
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If you have any further questions, please contact:
Mireille Kantiebo, Senior Researcher, Bureau of Women’s Health and Gender Analysis, HPB, Health Canada. (819)934-8649E-mail address: [email protected]