Member States agree on International Day of Care and Support: 
A milestone for gender equality and sustainable societies

Link to the groundbreaking resolution

“Working with the Governments of Australia and the Philippines on the design of a new investment in social protection, gender equality, and the equity and rights of people with disability and Indigenous Peoples.

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Feeling appreciated

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Mid Term Review of the World Bank Health and Nutrition Services Access (HANSA) Project in Laos with field visits to Phonsaly Province and Xiengkhouang Province.

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Launch of the Cambodia Second Health Equity and Quality Improvement Project (H-EQIP2) funded by Royal Government of Cambodia, World Bank, Australian DFAT, German KfW and the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF).

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Strengthening Gender Inclusive Initiatives in Maldives 

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Family Children Service Centre, Addu City

ADB design team

Very impressive Business Centre Corporation in Hithadhoo

Field visit with the Women's Development Committee

Meeting at Addu City Council

A snapshot of the Workshop Phase II of the Pacific Clinical Services Health Workforce Improvement Program.

My-EQIP is a Government of Myanmar and Government of Australia education quality improvement program. Here we are rounding off some gender training with a web of reflection.

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Hospital based One Stop Crisis Management Centres (OCMCs) are one of the Government of Nepal’s key responses to gender based violence (GBV). There are 55 OCMCs across Nepal. They provide an integrated package of services through a ‘one-door’ system that follows a multisectoral and locally coordinated approach to provide survivors with a comprehensive range of services including health care, psycho-social counselling, medico-legal services, access to safe homes, legal protection, personal security and rehabilitation support. OCMCs are founded on three core principles: (i) ensuring the security and safety of GBV survivors, (ii) maintaining confidentiality, and (iii) respecting the dignity, rights and wishes of survivors at all times.

In Northern Laos, village facilitators are working to improve maternal and child health and nutrition through a package of social and behaviour change communication. This event included information sharing on infant and young child feeding, growth monitoring and a cooking demonstration. 

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One of the outcomes of our support to the Ministry of Health and Population is the National Guidelines for Disability Inclusive Health Services, 2019. A pathbreaking initiative in Nepal, these guidelines are targeted at health sector managers and health professionals, and are an important step towards meeting the Government of Nepal's Sustainable Development Goals and the rights of persons with disabilities.

National Guidelines for Disability Inclusive Health Services, 2019

Deborah Thomas presenting at the HSR2018 - Fifth Symposium on Health Systems Research - Liverpool - Empowering Communities for Health in Cambodia. Read more

Facilitating a voting game with staff in the Ministry of Education to explore the drivers of social exclusion and social advantage.

Thank you for your contributions.

Focus group discussion with adolescent girls in TAFEA Province, Vanuatu, thank you for your contributions girls.

Lunch with the GESI and Health Policy and Planning team members of the Nepal Health Sector Support Programme, thank you for your great contributions.

The management team at Lenekal Hospital, TAFEA Province, Vanuatu at the end of a rich consultation meeting, thank you for the great contributions.

The catchment area of Paunangisu Health Centre in Vanuatu includes five outer islands but still has an institutional delivery rate close to 90%.

Women in Port Vila marching for women’s economic empowerment.

National Health Forum 2017 in Samoa was raising public awareness of health, exercise and diet.

Tuvaluan dancers performing for the farewell ceremony of the President of Taiwan when she visited Funafuti.

Focus group discussion with health staff to discuss constraints faced in delivering primary health care services in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. 

During field work as part of the gender assessment of H-EQIP we met this newly elected Commune Chief in Kratie. Women make up a small minority of elected representatives in Cambodia but there are signs that the leading political parties see the value in increasing their numbers. The Commune Chief’s father had himself been a Commune Chief and her husband supported her public position; arguably two key factors that enabled her to be successful.

Indigenous women have poorer health outcomes than non-indigenous in Cambodia. This community consultation with women in Mondulkiri highlighted the financial, transport and socio-cultural barriers they face in accessing health services. Traditional beliefs that define pregnancy related blood as polluting and require families to pay compensation to villagers where blood is spilled hinders families from allowing women to deliver in facilities and transporters being prepared to take them.

We recently visited this busy Marie Stopes Bangladesh Maternity clinic in Jessore, Bangladesh. Marie Stopes Bangladesh along with BRAC Manoshi and Smiling Sun clinics is participating in the DFID Urban Health Programme which includes a Municipality led initiative to harmonize the different NGO discount cards for the extreme poor. One of the reasons for visiting Jessore was to meet stakeholders and design the process evaluation of this new common entitlement card.

Role play, power walk and games brought alive the recent training of Ministry of Health and Medical Services in-service trainers on mainstreaming gender into the health sector in Fiji.

Fiji's National Gender Policy has created the impetus for sector ministries to develop their own gender implementation plans. This consultation with i-Taukei communities and primary health staff fed into the development of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services Gender Implementation Plan 2017-2020.

One of the E-Posters we will be presenting during the the 4th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research held in Vancouver on November 14 to November 18.

For more details please visit http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/…

Fiji’s health outcomes are impressive given the geographical barriers to accessing services in a country with over 150 inhabited islands and where it can take two weeks on a ship to reach some of the islands furthest from the capital.

The social accountability framework implemented through a handful of CSOs is innovative and path breaking, and helping to forge new cultural norms around the legitimacy of citizen voice. The photo above shows information displayed at a Commune Council in Banteay Srey on what citizens can expect from education, health and commune services

In April 2016, a year after the first earthquake, emergency tents are still standing outside Charikot Primary Health Care Centre but they are mainly being used for storage and staff quarters. However many Health Posts in the district are still operating from tents after they were damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes and reconstruction is yet to begin.

The team at the DFID funded UHSSP celebrating Bangladesh’s New Year. The project has been launched in the three focal cities of Dinajpur, Jessore and Mymensingh. The baseline survey, which includes a sample of over 3,000 households, a separate sample of floating populations, as well as focus group discussions, will provide critical evidence for government and NGO health service planning.

With our experience of working on health systems reform from the inside and fostering community voice and empowerment to trigger change from the outside, we see that context is key. Opening up space for institutional reform and for citizen participation are complementary processes that move systems closer to being more responsive and more inclusive but sequencing and synchronizing these moves depends on local realities.