gender.careinternationalwikis.org

CARE’s experiences in maternal and newborn health (MNH) have confirmed that improving quality of health services is not enough, nor is improving demand for health services or even teaching people about health behaviours. Reducing social barriers can, in fact, help improve the health of the community. Moreover, we have learned that addressing certain cultural norms related to gender and sexuality, such as early marriage, women’s limited mobility, or household violence can also significantly influence health outcomes. Through close collaboration with communities, we now are able to carefully design and incrementally implement projects that holistically address social determinants of poor health, with each project tailored to the needs and resources of the community where it is implemented. This maternal and newborn health (MNH) behaviour change communication (BCC) initiative was designed to address basic underlying causes of poor health in Uttar Pradesh, India.

• For a short overview of the project please visit
  • http://www.careacademy.org/ISOFI/ISOFI%20Pages/Chapter1ISOFIAnInnovativeGenderandSexualityProjec.pdf
• This Challenge and Change report highlights some of the processes that ISOFI took to integrate gender and sexuality factors into maternal health projects.
  • http://www.care.org/careswork/whatwedo/health/srh/Challenge-and-Change-2010.pdf
• The ISOFI Toolkit can be downloaded in both English and French
  • http://www.care.org/careswork/whatwedo/health/downloads/isofi_toolkit.pdf