Written by: EnCompass Staff

Have you been following our team’s work on gender integration in Ethiopia? If so, you’ll know that EnCompass team members for the USAID Transform: Primary Health Care project have been working hard on a number of levels, from project-level gender strategy to contributions to United Nations-level actions for women’s rights.

This month, we are pleased to announce a new resource from the project team—a synthesis of Successes from a Collaborative and Iterative Process for Gender Integration Throughout the Project Cycle.

The resource is the result of collaboration with the project’s thematic technical leaders and the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health to respond directly to gender gaps and opportunities in healthcare. It also supports USAID’s efforts to conduct gender analyses and ensure gender integration throughout the Program Cycle. The examples it contains demonstrate gender integration successes achieved through a collaborative approach to gender analysis, annual gender strategy workshops, and capacity strengthening for technical leads to integrate gender in activities they manage.

The collection offers insights for how projects can use gender analyses to provide targeted technical assistance to improve gender-related outcomes and work across teams to strengthen gender integration:

• Responding to gender gaps and opportunities: Gender-responsive leadership, management, and governance; gender-based violence prevention and response services; and engaging men in antenatal care and family planning
• Strengthening the capacity of technical leads: Service integration, advocating for gender transformation to improve child health, improving maternal health and engaging men in antenatal care, empowering adolescents
• Next steps for transferring capacity: Cultivating more champions for addressing gender issues in reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health

The USAID Transform: Primary Health Care project contributes to the prevention of maternal and child deaths by strengthening the health system in Ethiopia’s four major regions—Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region. EnCompass is proud to work with USAID, Pathfinder International, and the Ethiopian government to support gender integration in the health system.

Photo by Elizabeth Stones, EnCompass LLC. All rights reserved.