Public Health Association of Australia:

Policy-at-a-glance Womens Health in Overseas Aid Programs Policy

Key message:

PHAA states that:

1. Renewed commitment to, and resourcing of, gender
mainstreaming and equality is required across all Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) policies and programs.
2. Specific actions required include: gender sensitive health
professional training, including men in achieving gender
equality, accessible and appropriate health infrastructure,
womens sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender
sensitive data collection, and inter-sectoral collaboration.
3. DFAT should monitor and evaluate the implementation of
gender policies and report on these to Parliament.

Summary: The health of women in developing countries can only be improved

through addressing the social determinants of health and providing
improved access to appropriate quality health care. Women need to
be empowered through education, employment opportunities and
greater participation in decision making. Australian aid programs need
to reflect the needs identified by women and should address a range
of factors impacting health outcomes. This policy seeks to outline a
series of principles and tangible actions designed to achieve these
goals.
Audience: The Australian Government, DFAT, policy makers and program
managers.
Responsibility: PHAAs International Health Special Interest Group (SIG).
Date policy adopted: September 2015

Dr Jaya Earnest, International Health SIG Convenor.

Contacts: Email: J.Earnest@curtin.edu.au
Claire Rogers, International Health SIG General Committee Member.
Email: Claire.Rogers@curtin.edu.au

Womens Health in Overseas Aid Programs Policy

The Public Health Association of Australia notes that:
1. The health of women in developing countries is severely undermined by social, economic, legal and
political inequities. Several international conventions and policies have identified gender equity and
health as a major development issues. These include - the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform
of Action and the International Conference on Population and Development declaration.1
2. The Australian Governments development policy 1 aims to build an aid program effective in promoting
economic growth and reducing poverty.2
3. DFATs strategy will support initiatives which promote gender equality and empowerment of women
and girls and will invest in healthparticularly health systemsso that women, men and children
can access to better health and live healthy and productive lives.
4. Further affirmative action is evident in the strategic goals of the Governments aid policy to promote
gender equality and womens empowerment through: enhancement of womens voices in decisionmaking, leadership, and peace-building; encouragement of womens economic empowerment; and
supporting ending violence against women and girls.2
5. Gender inequality in education impacts both health and economic growth and child mortality rates.
Illiteracy reduces employment opportunities and contributes towards sustaining the low economic
and social status which inhibits women in developing countries from asserting their basic health
needs.3 Approximately two thirds of the worlds 774 million illiterate adults are women.4
6. Womens lack of access to and control over resources limits their economic autonomy and increases
their vulnerability. Women often work in employment with low or no cash returns, and unpaid
domestic tasks. Further, existing statutory and customary laws limit womens access to land and
property in Africa and about half the countries in Asia. A significant proportion of married women
have no say in how their earnings are spent and do not participate in household decision-making.5\
7. Maternal health complications remain a major cause of death and illness for women. Every day,
approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth with 99%
of all maternal deaths occurring in developing countries.6
8. An estimated 222 million women in the developing world do not use a modern method of
contraception but would like to prevent pregnancy. Globally this results in 80 million unintended
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Australian aid: promoting prosperity, reducing poverty, enhancing stability within the performance framework
Making Performance Count: enhancing the accountability and effectiveness of Australian aid
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pregnancies, 30 million unplanned births and 20 million unsafe abortions. Globally, the prevalence
rate for contraceptive use is 57%, while in the least developed countries it is only 30%.7
9. Lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services disproportionately impacts impoverished
women and adolescent girls and contributes to maternal mortality and morbidity. Traditional or
moral values are sometimes used to deny womens sexual and reproductive health services.7
10. Globally women continue to experience a wide range of sexual violence, coercion and deprivation of
legal and other protections, which is a gross violation of their human rights, threatening their social
and economic well-being. This is particularly so in times of war and complex humanitarian situations.7
Poverty and unstable political situations increase womens and adolescent girl vulnerability to engage
in high-risk occupations, including commercial sex work, and to being trafficked.
11. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), one of the most harmful cultural practices against women.
Although in decline, it is still practised in a number of countries, and measuring it is a challenge due
the sensitivity of the topic and cultural and societal barriers.8
12. HIV and sexual and reproductive health are intimately related, with 80 per cent of HIV cases globally
transmitted sexually and 10 per cent transmitted during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding. The
majority of HIV-positive adults in are women.9
13. Health needs increase with increasing age, and globally women are being overrepresented among the
older poor.7
14. An independent review of Australian aid effectiveness in 2011 found that gender is a critical crosscutting issue for the aid program and that while the priority has increased to gender equality and
womens empowerment, the program faces challenges due to inadequate funding especially to
health.10 Reductions in the Australian foreign aid budget will have a disproportionate impact on
women and girls.
The Public Health Association of Australia affirms the following principles:
1. Two of the fundamental principles guiding activities of the Australian development assistance program
are the principles of gender equity and womens empowerment, and development policies of DFAT
should reflect this principle.
2. Emphasis must be placed on providing holistic, effective and equitable sexual and reproductive health
services for women and girls within the DFAT humanitarian aid framework.
3. The investment in education, with a special focus on girls, and the promotion of improved health
outcomes for women through quality maternal and child health and family planning services are
outlined in Australias aid policy.

The Public Health Association of Australia believes that the following steps should be undertaken:
1. The health of women in developing countries can only be improved through addressing the social
determinants of health and providing improved access for all women to appropriate quality health
care. Access to basic education for girls and women should continue to be a priority in development
assistance programs.7
2. Australian aid programs must reflect needs identified by women and should address:
access to women-centred sexual and reproductive health services and methods;
women- friendly health infrastructure;
health care workers trained in gender sensitive practice;
women's role as care givers and heads of households; and
the role of women as agents of primary prevention in communities and homes.
3. Gender sensitive indicators should be an integral part of all monitoring and evaluation systems in order
to provide a basis for further planning and development of services.
The Public Health Association of Australia resolves to undertake the following actions:
4. PHAA will write to DFAT and the responsible Minister and members of Parliament to advocate for
gender and health to be adequately addressed in aid programmes.
5. DFAT's gender equality and womens empowerment policies should continue to include:
a. Human rights as an underpinning principle;
b. Gender sensitive training for health care workers and programme managers;
c. Womens sexual and reproductive health and rights;
d. gender sensitive data collection and analysis;
e. inter-sectoral collaboration;
6. DFAT continue to monitor, evaluate and report on the implementation of gender, empowerment and
health policies to Parliament as part of the CEDAW and MDG reporting framework.
REVISED AND RE-ENDORSED IN 2012, First adopted at the 2006 Annual General Meeting of the Public
Health Association of Australia. This policy was revised in 2009, 2012 and the latest revision has been
undertaken as part of the 2015 policy review process.
References:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

UN Women (n.d.) International agreements that guide the work of the UN Women.
http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/guiding-documents
Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Aid: promoting prosperity, reducing poverty, enhancing stability. In:
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, editor. Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; 2014.
United Nations Population Fund. Gender Equality 2014. Available from: http://www.unfpa.org/genderequality.
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Statistics on Literacy 2014. Available from:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/education-building-blocks/literacy/resources/statistics
Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations. The World's Women 2010 - Trends and Statistics.
New York: United Nations, 2010.
World Health Organisation. Maternal Mortality: Fact sheet N348 2014. Available from:
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http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs348/en/#.
High-Level Task Force for the the International Conference on Population and Development. Policy
Recommendations for the ICPD Beyond 2014: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All. New York:
High-Level Task Force for the ICPD, 2013.
8. Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations. The World's Women 2010 - Trends and Statistics.
New York: United Nations, 2010.
9. United Nations. Framework of Actions for the follow-up to the Programme of Action of the International
Conference on Population and Development Beyond 2014. New York: United Nations, 2014.
10. Commonwealth of Australia. An Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness 2011. Available from:
http://www.aidreview.gov.au/
7.