Webinar: Gender Politics and Global Health Governance

The PHM Democratising Global Health Governance programme invites you to a webinar to discuss Gender Politics and Global Health Governance.

(Spanish interpretation available)

In this webinar three speakers focus on mapping the ongoing pushback against women’s rights at the WHO, the contradictory effects of recognising women’s SRHR as part in the Cairo Declaration on Population and Development, and the imagination of how women’s rights should be defended and advance in a multilateral system of the future.

The focus on this topic emerged out of a controversy at EB152, but such controversy happens every year. At that meeting a number of countries expressed their disapproval at WHO’s collaboration with a civil society organisation that advocates for the sexual and reproductive health rights. 

Additionally, several countries have in past years criticised the WHO for overstepping its technical mandate, and instead making “political” recommendations that recognise the reproductive and sexual health rights of women, girls, gender non-confirming people and men and having sex with men. 

·      Date: 25 September 2024

·      Time: 11 UTC 

·      Registration: https://tinyurl.com/GenderGHG

Speakers:

·      ⁠⁠Nicoletta Dentico (SID and G2H2, Italy)

·      Adsa Fatima (PHM Gender Justice &Health thematic group coordinator)

·      Natalia Echegoyemberry (PHM Argentina)

Nicoletta Dentico (SID and G2H2, Italy)

Pushback against women’s rights in WHO… and other UN institutions: Over the past 4 years, the idea of protecting and promoting the sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) of women and girls has sometimes proved to be a political flashpoint in the World Health Organisation (WHO). What are the specific issues around which this “pushback” on women’s and girls’ SRHR to health has occurred? Who are the key players pushing for and against this pushback? What explains their positions - for example, do geopolitics and donor dependencies shape their positions?  Finally, what role can civil society play in defending and advancing women’s and girls’ right to health? 

Adsa Fatima (PHM Gender Justice &Health thematic group coordinator)

Contradictory effects of interventions aimed at institutionalising and advancing women’s rights: Thirty years ago, in September 1994, the Cairo Declaration on Population and Development was published. The Declaration demanded that “women are guaranteed equal rights and equal status with men”, encouraged respect for “national and cultural identity, values and tradition”, and called for removing “all remaining barriers … that inhibit access to family planning services, information and education, … [and] support[ing] the provision of reproductive health and family planning services as widely as possible”. It acknowledged that “abortions constitute a major public health concern for women all over the world”, but did not emphatically encourage governments to guarantee access to this service. What are some of the positive developments that have followed from its implementation? Are there limitations of the Declaration? For example, has it contributed to conflating women’s health with access to SRHR and maternal health?   

Natalia Echegoyemberry (PHM Argentina)

The SOTF and imagining women’s rights in a multilateral system for the future: In September 2024 the UN is hosting a high level meeting on the Summit of the Future. The process is aimed at creating a “multilateral system can turbocharge [signatories] aspirations to deliver for people and planet.” The second draft of the Pact for the Future, which will be  discussed and endorsed at the summit, aimed to “ensure that science, technology and innovation improve gender equality and the lives of all women and girls.” At the same time, it seeks to “Protect and enforce intellectual property rights to promote technological innovation, build trust and contribute to the transfer and dissemination of technology on mutually agreed terms.” The HIV/AIDS pandemic, the TB pandemic, the West Africa Ebola crisis of 2014, the ongoing cholera and mpox outbreaks in West Africa, and Covid-19 pandemic exposed how the current IPR system contributes to unequal access to medical products - and how women, in their capacity as frontline health workers and care workers in the home, carry the burden of caring for the sick (often with little protection). What would a feminist IPR for health agenda look like in the SOTF? How can this agenda help shape the WTO’s evaluation of the TRIPS regime, requested by Colombia? Finally, how might a feminist IPR agenda shape the ongoing negotiations for a new Pandemic Accord?