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“Why Gender Equality Matters for the Global Fund”

Opening Remarks

NafsiahMboi, Chair, the Global Fund Board

At the Gender Equality Workshop

3 March 2014, Jakarta, Indonesia

–Ladies and gentlemen,

–Friends and colleagues from the Global Fund secretariat,

–Implementers and donors,

–Representatives of affected communities, civil society and government :

I want to start with profound thanks to our friends from the Communities Delegation who took up the good idea initially articulated at our last Board meeting, gave it life, and gathered us here today. They have created space for us to look at our Gender Equality Strategy. I am going to use this opportunity to speak about the larger context of gender and public health

In our Global Fund life I think this workshop is particularly timely. In connection with full launch of the new funding model we are about to start a new cycle of discussion with our field partners. We will be thinking and re-thinking with them about program strategy, design, and implementation. We have a golden opportunity to underscore the importance of gender analysis in all aspects of the programs in which we might invest – management, problem identification, provision and utilization of information and service, public policy, community empowerment and so forth.

This afternoon I will touch on 3 points hoping that these reflections may enrich your discussions thereafter

  1. What is gender and who is influenced by gender ?
  2. Why gender equality matters for the Global Fund? and
  3. How should we, the Global Fund Partnership, proceed in this field?

1. What is Gender ? : A classic statement on this subject says :

We are born male and female

We learn to be men and women

When we talk about gender we are talking about that social learning, the social definitions which influences private opinion and public behavior. It influences law and public policy.

Masculinity and femininity are socially defined. WE define, WE impose. But the good news is that WE, my friends, can also change. Following gender norms and values, societies reward certain behaviors and sanction others. Gender concerns, relate to us all and influences us all. They cannot be seen only as a woman’s issue or a man’s issue.

Gender analysis is the crucial tool to help us understand the differential impact of gender norms and expectations which may increase or decrease exposure to disease and may influence the way services are delivered and received. For example, in many parts of the world if a person is diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection the reaction may be very different in both the health care provider and the individual receiving the diagnosis depending on the patient’s gender. The man may be proud, the woman embarrassed. The man may be treated with a wink and a mild rebuke. The woman, may be altogether shunned or scolded assuming if she were a “good woman” she could not have such an infection.

It doesn’t always work this way but this is an example of the inequality, unfairness, which gender norms can introduce in public health if left unchallenged. And gender analysis is a critical tool – not pro men or pro women but pro women and men so it leads us to a win-win situation.

2. Why Gender Equality Matters for the Global Fund ? That seems to me easy and clear. I highlight two things

Gender equality matters to us because it is an issue of human rights, a cross cutting concern of ours throughout the whole Global Fund Partnership, and

because evidenced-based global experience is clear that conscious attention to gender issues in our fields of interest will increase program effectiveness, as well as self-reliance and self-respect of our partners,

There can be no room to question. We must practice gender awareness ourselves and help our partners on all sides of the health equation to recognize and address gender aspects of life looking at interaction of gender issues with risk, health service delivery and utilization, personal autonomy and decision making.

How should we proceed ?

We are at a strategic moment in the life of the GF and today’s discussion is important. Upon reflection, I would like to propose that among our various gender tools we should consider strengthening our Gender Equality Strategy as an overarching gender policy laying out rational, principles, and possibly some steps for application in all GF supported programs. This could then be supplemented, as appropriate, by disease-specific or country-specific or partner-specific gender guidelines focused on supporting gender analysis by group. For example documents and discussion today make it clear we have done some good work related to the issues of women and girls. But I am not sure we have done equally well related to the diseases we fight and the men and transgender communities with whom we work. I am firmly convinced that progress for women depends on understanding the gender dynamics at work but they too will benefit from lifesaving, transformative gender-informed work with the men who are their partners, their husbands, their fathers, their brothers.

As director of the WHO Department of Gender and Women’s Health some years ago I was able to help WHO start such a process. It is my pleasure today to show you some of our early products as an example of the sort of thing I have in mind – the gender policy which was ultimately issued in the five UN languages, and three short issue-specific pieces of gender analysis. These are hard copy. I am also giving soft copy to your committee so these will be available if you would like to see them.

Conclusion

As you see, this is an endlessly interesting subject and, in my view, vitally important to Global Fund’s commitment to public health and our commitment to human rights. If we embrace and champion the principles of gender awareness I promise you we will be more effective agents of change, we will be newly empowered ourselves, and will support empowerment of our partners for their health and enjoyment of fuller lives.

Let it not be said that the Global Fund had such a golden opportunity to advance the cause of gender equality and we hesitated to act or took only half measures. I call upon us all to embrace this moment in full solidarity with one another and move forward.

Again, I thank the Communities delegation and Women4GF for giving us the opportunity and stimulus to have this discussion.