This brief explores what gender-responsive M&E is, why it is important, and how to integrate it into health programs, with a particular focus on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health.
This brief addresses gender inequities that health workers who provide maternal and newborn health services experience. Key issues faced by providers include long working hours, poor remuneration, lack of training opportunities, violence, and restrictions on mobility. Example indicators under each area are provided.
The purpose of monitoring and evaluating health programs is to track and support progress toward intended reforms and reach intended beneficiaries, as well as to assess whether intended outputs and outcomes have been achieved2. As a result, it is important that health programs, interventions, and reforms proactively address gender inequalities, and that monitoring and evaluation of these efforts track whether, and to what extent, the desired success is being achieved. If we do not measure gender inequality, we will not be able to address it.
Health financing plays a significant role in determining the availability of health care, who can access care, and the degree of financial protection provided to poor and vulnerable populations. Gender-responsive health financing for Reproductive Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAHN) entails recognizing and analyzing how gender power relations affect the financing of access to and utilization of RMNCAH-N by women and men, boys, and girls.