Gender Action Plan

Challenge

SLR prepared a Gender Action Plan (GAP) to support the modernisation of the health care offer in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. A GAP defines the actions and commitments of the programme stakeholders to promote and improve gender equality.

Solution

The programme objective was to take action at the regional scale, by supporting the modernisation and coordination of infrastructure at regional and district hospitals, as well as at basic health centres. Feasibility studies identified that women are more severely affected than men by health care disfunctions, particularly because of the situation of maternal and child health. A Gender Action Plan (GAP) was therefore the appropriate diligence to identify the specific needs of women and ensure that they would be taken into account in the various components and stages of the programme.

SLR carried out a mission in Tunisia to consult the stakeholders, and interview women about their specific needs and define with them the actions to improve their health experience.

Impact

The GAP prepared for the Programme included actions to be considered at the design stage (integrating rooms dedicated to women in the new regional hospital); capacity building actions (training health workers to meet the specific needs of women); and actions to support the regional health care governance (improve partnerships between public service and civil society actors).