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Health, Gender, Households, Strategies, Communication?

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In the research report Perceptions of Influence that had a focus on how households make health decisions, one of the significant implications from that research read as follows:

More broadly, PEI (and initiatives for wider health system strengthening) need a clearer gender strategy – building communication and engagement between men and women within households, but also through their mutual participation in the planning and management of community health activities, and integrating female health workers more closely in institutional processes of service planning and delivery. This could strengthen the role of women within public health at multiple levels of decision-making but also improve the coherence and commitment of male and female household heads to health as a priority issue for positive action.

We would very much welcome you sharing (a) your reation to that proposed priority (b) any initiatives in which you have been engaged that have a focus on greater gender equity in the ways in which households make health decisions and (c) your critique of that work relative to improving health status. With many thanks for engaging on this important issue. 

 

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This is a quick follow up to the Health, Gender, Households, Strategies, Communication? post that drew as its starting point the Nigeria research on how househoulds and communities make health decisions. 

Research from Guatemala reveals a similar dynamic with a communication focused programmatic response that seems to have had real impact. The programme is Casas Maternas in the Rural Highlands of Guatemala. They were up against a maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 338 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births with (2011) 89% of deliveries were still occurring in the homes, and 81% were attended by traditional birth attendants (comadronas). By 2014, 54% of women living in the Calhuitz and Santo Domingo partner communities were giving birth at the respective Casas Maternas.

How this happened is a complex story. The The researchers attribute community engagement and community ownership as being critical for establishing the operation of the Casas Maternas (construction and management of the facility) and to the success of the Curamericas programme.

We would welcome your critical review of both the programme and the research related to that programme which can be reviewed at this link.

What is your critical review of the strategy being implemented?

How compelling and "solid" are the research results in your opinion?

Many thanks for engaging on the vitally important issues related to maternal mortality.