Power Of...

Podcast Title: Power Of…

Episode Title: The Power of Feminist Civil Society: Lessons from the Field of Preventing Violence Against Women and Girls

Join us in the Power Of…podcast, a series of conversation that dives into critical, thought provoking, and contemporary content to drive gender equality in global health. Johanna Riha hosts this podcast and works at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health in Malaysia—she is passionate to see real change happen. This episode is the first in a miniseries focusing on the power of feminist civil society in advancing gender equality in global health. Civil society activism has catalysed and been fundamental in terms of progress in a number of global health issues, very much beyond functioning as just an accountability mechanism for national governments or global health actors. Johanna dives into a discussion with feminist activist, strategist and consultant, Jessica Horn who talks about her think piece on learning from and with feminist organising in the area of violence against women and girls.

Jessica begins by highlighting areas where feminist actors have led change through expertise, capacity, and influence to anchor and build a field of activist public health that responds to violence against women and girls. She describes how feminist actors have worked to ground the field of prevention in persistent engagement with ecological frameworks, feminist ethics, and power analysis in order to shape and assess intervention models, research questions, and funding principles in ways that centre accountability to women and girls; to inspire a commitment to centering experimentation and innovation; and to press for the recognition of practitioners as knowledge producers and as experts in programme design (including an active commitment to decolonisation by shifting resources and visibility to Global South research institutions and knowledge producers).

As the episode ends, Johanna hears from two other health experts who respond and reflect on Jessica’s piece. Avni Amin, who works at the World Health Organization’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research on violence against women, touches on how the think piece highlighted the importance of civil society actors in health programming that kept women at the centre of the efforts. Avin also mentions the role of feminist actors in the innovations that came about as a result of meaningful partnerships. Lori Michau, the co-founder and Co-Director of Raising Voices, a feminist non-profit organisation based in Kampala, Uganda, adds that the ecological approach mentioned in Jessica’s piece provides an important contribution which can be used in other health areas to understand the different multiple and intersecting realities of people's lives and tackle gender inequalities at the micro, meso and macro level.  

If you haven’t already download and read Jessica Horn’s think piece on Learning from and with feminist organising: Lessons from multi-disciplinary praxis to prevent violence against women and girls, which is the central driver of discussions for this podcast mini-series. Also don’t miss the next episode on the power of feminist civil society and keep challenging yourself to think, question, and do more to drive gender equality in global health! Please like, share, and subscribe!

Links:

Visit our website

Learn more about Johanna Riha

Connect with Jessica on Twitter

Read Jessica’s piece.

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]

Podcast Title: Power Of...

Episode Title: The Power of Evidence: The Utility of "Gender Transformative” Language in Evaluating Health Programmes

Tune in to the Power Of...podcast, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health. In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.

Johanna Riha, hosts this podcast and works at the UNU-IIGH in Malaysia. She is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health must be met with changes to the underlying structural and systemic drivers for true transformation to occur. In this episode, Johanna continues the conversation to hear the perspectives of those evaluating health programs. They discuss the utility of gender transformative language in health programme evaluation and what more can be done to ensure health programmes address the structural barriers related to gender inequalities. The episode starts with views shared by Faiza Benhadid from the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research. She is a clinical psychologist and anthropologist with more than 40 years of experience working on gender and health programmes both in her native Algeria as well as globally for organisations like IPPF, EEU, the World Bank, and others. A second guest, Manuel Contreras-Urbina, a Senior Social Development Specialist at the World Bank, joins the conversation to share his views on the utility of gender transformative language when evaluating health programmes.

Johanna kicks off the conversation asking Faiza to share her experience on progress to date, vis-à-vis tackling gender inequalities in health.  Faiza discusses the slow progress they have seen and how some places prove to be more ambitious than others in their efforts for change. Next, Manuel shares his thoughts on what gender transformation in health programs means to him, and how they are working to carry out actions and activities that confront gender stereotypes and patriarchy in society.

The conversation shifts as Manuel shares his experience in evaluating these programs. Are programs able to change norms, attitudes, and power relations? Are there unintended consequences from improving things in one area?

Knowledge should transform and result in positive actions and ideas to serve the community—ultimately helping to reduce overall inequality. The guests highlight that health programme evaluation is more than just rubber-stamping—saying whether an intervention was transformative or not. The work as evaluators has to go beyond this and be more comprehensive and complex to really analyse what parts of the programme benefit women independently of the outcome, giving communities a voice in this analysis.

As this episode comes to a close, Manuel raises the important point that it’s important to be strategic in the use of language, “what matters is the change we want to see and the language is a means to get there.”

Thanks for tuning in to this mini-series on the power of evidence!

Watch out for our next think piece by Jessica Horn on the power of feminist civil society. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!

Links:

Visit our website

Learn more about Johanna Riha

Connect with Faiza on LinkedIn

Connect with Manuel on LinkedIn

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website

Follow the UNU International Institute for Global Health on Twitter

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]

Podcast Title: Power Of...

Episode Title: The Power of Evidence: Transforming Health Systems for Gender Equality

Welcome to the Power Of...podcast, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health Podcast. In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.

Host, Johanna Riha, works at the UNU-IIGH in Malaysia and is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health must be met with changes to the underlying structural and systemic drivers for true transformation to occur. In this episode, Johanna converses with three health system experts - Sreytouch Vong, who works in Cambodia; Jean-Paul Dossou, who works in Benin; and Lucy Gilson, who works in South Africa - on health systems and what health system transformation for gender equality looks like. The first question Johanna wants to consider is how gender power inequalities manifest in health systems. Her guests have no shortage of examples. For one thing, while women represent 70% of the global healthcare workforce, only 25% of them hold senior roles. One result of this bias is that health systems are not designed to address the needs of women and girls and often reinforce gender inequalities. This under-representation also shapes everything from financing practices to types of services and is generally accompanied by a failure to appreciate or even be aware of multiple experiences, especially that of women and girls.

Sreytouch also raises the point that while there are many indications of gender inequality at play in health systems, many shifts and changes have also occurred that provide positive progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has, for all its terrible ramifications, allowed for women to become more active and visible as health system leaders. Jean-Paul adds that advancing technology has also empowered women to have more pertinent information handy as they make everyday health decisions (though this also raises the question of who is providing the information), and Lucy comments on shifts in the profile of leaders. This profile shift has occurred across the health system, and has allowed women to gain both prominence and a clear sight of role models highlighting the possibilities for equality. Recent shifts have brought with them a slow (and necessary!) widening of the perspectives included in health system decision making. However, it is also important to question the very nature of this decision making. In other words, it remains important to ask what structures of decision making exist and should exist, rather than taking the status quo for granted. Positive moves for these structures would include the incorporation of more perspectives, as well as the decentralisation of power.

Moving forward, Johanna raises the question of how to better build bridges across movements working towards equality – be they decolonising global health, health equity, etc - without sidelining any one agenda. Jean-Paul raises the point that it may be helpful, on a philosophical level, to conceptualise the whole pursuit of equality under one umbrella, possibly even the umbrella of a single word like “love.” This concept is itself hard to wrap one’s mind around, but it provides a sort of handle that people with different goals can latch onto together. These goals are, in fact, parallel, and leave much opportunity for people to learn from each other. Lucy and Sreytouch add that if those pursuing these different but related goals towards equality see their different aims as multiplying opportunities rather than competing goals, a great deal of change can be produced. There is still a long journey ahead in the gender transformation of the health system, but there is also much room for hope if those pushing for equality study from and complement each other’s efforts, and if they intentionally invest in the younger generation. To maximise effectiveness, those who hope to see equality take greater root should support decision-making at all levels of society and recognise the moment of opportunity created by the COVID-19 crisis. As the episode concludes, Johanna invites listeners to join her for the next conversation, which will hear from those evaluating health programmes and hear their perspectives on the utility of the gender transformative language and its role in ensuring gender-related barriers and needs are actually addressed in health programmes. If you haven’t already download and read Anju Malhotra’s think piece on the disconnect between gender transformative language and action in global health, which is the central driver of discussions for this podcast mini-series.

So don’t miss the next episode and keep challenging yourself to think, question, and do more to drive gender equality in global health!

Please like, share, and subscribe!

Links:

Download Anju Malhotra's think piece

Visit the UNU-IIGH website

Learn more about Johanna Riha

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website

Follow the UNU-IIGH on Twitter

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]

Podcast Title: Power Of...

Episode Title: The Power of Evidence: The Disconnect Between “Gender Transformative” Language and Action in Global Health

Welcome to the Power Of...podcast, a production by the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH). In this collection of conversations, we dive into critical, thought-provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.

Host, Johanna Riha, works at the UNU-IIGH in Malaysia and is passionate that the bold commitments towards gender equality in health be met with changes to the underlying structural and systemic drivers for true transformation to occur. In this episode, Johanna focuses on the power of evidence and she explores the misappropriation and misuse of ‘gender transformation’ language, along with the negative impact this has had in addressing gender inequality in global health. Guest Anju Malhotra joins the conversation to talk about a recent think piece she authored on the topic.

Discussing her recent think piece, Anju shares why the time is right to have this conversation. Reflecting on the progress that has been made, we are still looking forward to achieving the envisioned changes many had hoped for in terms of gender equality.

Anju walks through the key points and arguments she makes in her think-piece, in particular the concern that arises over the misappropriation of gender-transformative language and its use as a self-congratulatory tool. She outlines three main reasons for raising this concern. First, the gender-transformative label is often used to define programmes based on what a programme intends rather than what it achieves. Second, the label frequently fails to capture the negative or unintended consequences associated with changing unequal power structures in society. And finally, many programmes that are associated with the gender-transformative label place the burden of change on individuals rather than on health systems.

The episode ends with the three concrete steps that Anju presents which would help move this conversation forward: 1) define success in terms of outcomes achieved, rather than intentions, 2) have realistic theories of change—looking at both optimistic and pessimistic realities, 3) focus more on changing health systems for gender equality, rather than the other way around.

As the episode draws to a close, a few others join the conversation to share what they thought about the think piece. Jennifer McCleary-Sills—a senior program officer for gender equality at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation —talks about the main thesis of rhetoric verses investment, and how everyone wants a label but they do not want to do their work differently. Geeta Rao Gupta, a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation, also shares her thoughts about the misuse of gender-transformative language and goes on to argue that there needs to be a shift in the balance of power in order for gender equality to take place.

Don’t miss the next episode as we explore the theme of health systems transformation for gender equality from multiple perspectives and geographies. Keep challenging yourself to think, question, and do more!

Please like, share, and subscribe!

Links:

Download Anju's think piece

Visit the UNU-IIGH website

Learn more about Johanna Riha

Check out the Gender and Health Hub website

Follow the UNU-IIGH on Twitter

Follow the Gender and Health Hub on Twitter

Send in your feedback! Write to us: [email protected]

Welcome to the Power of...podcast series, a collection of conversations that dive into critical, thought provoking, and contemporary content to stimulate debate and dialogue all with the aim of driving gender equality in global health.