1. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean The use of gender sensitive indicators in health policy making, monitoring, and evaluation 2nd Interagency and Expert Group Meeting on Gender Statistics in the Arab Region 12 - 16 October 2009

2. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Outline Contemporary public health environment Gender responsive health policies Integrating gender into health policies and programmes Data informing health policies Capturing health needs of the vulnerable Women’s health Concluding thoughts

3. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Contemporary public health environment WHO definition of health is not equated with the absence of disease. Social factors influence health behaviours and trigger positive and negative health outcomes. All factors that lead to the acquisition and maintenance of optimal health status are accorded importance. Gender is an important social determinant of health that needs consideration in health policy decisions.

4. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Gender responsive health policies Characteristics: Consider implications of any health action, programme, or policy for its target women and men, boys and girls. Addresses both male and female concerns and experiences in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health policies and programmes Strengthen capacities of health systems to respond to the differential needs of its male and female populations. Determine whether men, women, boys and girls, have benefited equitably from health policies and programmes in monitoring and evaluation.

5. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Integrating gender into health policies and programmes Distribute health resources to meet differential male and female population needs. Recognize and target roots of health seeking behaviour. Increase access and compliance of health services by men & women, boys & girls. Include the demand side component of health programmes and policies. Facilitates health systems response to the differential needs of its male and female populations. Strengthen health systems by achieving more strategically targeted and ultimately more cost efficient health programmes.

6. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Data informing health policies Data generated from health indicators are the basic premise for policy development. Information on both health status and determinants of health are needed to ensure strategic policy decisions. Policy decisions must reflect and address the causes of illnesses, not just their outcomes, in order to achieve sustainable progress towards better health. Measures of morbidity, disability as well as non- biological determinants of health (such as access to services, quality of care, living conditions and environmental factors) must inform policy decisions.

7. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Capturing health needs of the vulnerable Aggregated health data does not generate evidence on the status and trends of the health situation of separate population groups, or of men and women. Disaggregation of health data by sex and age, at a minimum, helps uncover inequalities in health, and identifies population groups, male or female, with the greatest health needs. Gender indicators can be used to collect data on specific needs and contexts of male and female population groups. Health policies and programmes must ensure that the most vulnerable women and men are being reached through health systems.

8. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Capturing information on women’s health Biological differences alone cannot explain the different disease patterns between men and women. Women are defined as a vulnerable group in part because of because of gender inequalities. Information on women’s health must reflect health needs beyond the reproductive functions. Data informing health policies should include information on the differential available access to resources needed to secure optimal health

9. World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Concluding thoughts