Integrating Poverty And Gender Into Health Programmes

The aim of this module is to strengthen the capacity of teachers, administrators and those developing training materials to introduce changes into curricula that will ensure health professional curricula or courses include the concepts of gender, poverty and health. This module is designed to assist leaders to develop the necessary skills and tools to manage curriculum development and change.

This publication is part of a series which examines the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health policies and programmes, focusing on the multidimensional aspects of poverty and gender-based disparities. The series is designed for use in the training of health professionals, as well as a reference document for policy-makers and programme managers. This module focuses on poverty and gender concern in the prevention, treatment and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and aims to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of health professionals of NCDs in developing countries. It is divided into six sections and issues discussed include: the distribution of NCDs globally and within the Western Pacific Region; the links between poverty, gender and NCDs; human rights issues; good practices in prevention, treatment and control; notes for facilitators; and information on tools and other resources.

This module is designed to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of health professionals on poverty and gender concerns in the field of HIV/AIDS. Experience increasingly shows that the socioeconomic factors contributing to the rapid spread of HIV in the Region include low education, limited access to health care services and increased mobility within and between countries -- factors that are largely determined by poverty and gender inequality. The growing commitment to curbing the HIV/AIDS epidemic requires that health professionals at community, provincial, national and international levels have the knowledge, skills and tools to more effectively respond to the health needs of poor and marginalized people and address the gender inequalities fuelling the epidemic. However, many health professionals in the Region are not adequately prepared to address these issues. This module is designed to help fill this gap. This module, which is part of a Sourcebook for health professionals, is intended to be used in pre-service and in-service training of health professionals. It is divided into six sections: Section 1 provides a brief overview of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and an understanding of HIV/AIDS; Section 2 examines What the links are between poverty, gender and HIV/AIDS; Section 3 discusses why it is important for health professionals to address HIV/AIDS, from efficiency, equity and human rights perspectives; Section 4 discusses how health professionals can address poverty and gender concerns in HIV/AIDS; Section 5 provides notes for facilitators and finally Section 6 contains a collection of tools, resources and references to support health professionals in their work in this field.

This sourcebook is designed for use through participatory learning methods that involve the learner, taking advantage of his/her experience and knowledge. It is hope that this sourcebook will prove useful in bringing greater attention to poverty and gender concerns in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of health policies, programmes and interventions.