Policies to improve the health status of the poor have been an important focus of development policy, justified by the recognition that good health is a basic right as well as a critical determinant of economic productivity. Whilst policy makers have focussed on the delivery of basic free or low cost services to the poor, health is also dependent on health seeking behaviour and on a range of environmental, social and cultural factors.
The report dicusses how mainstream health policy has emphasised women’s special health needs which has resulted in non-reproductive health care and the broader range of gender-related factors determining health status and care being overlooked. Problems of inequity in access to health care are identified. and the linkages between gender and poverty are analysed in terms of poor health, stigmatisation and vulnerability to violence.
This gender analysis of health and poverty suggests the need for policies which pay attention to the broad range of women’s health needs. Health sector reform strategies must ensure they do not put extra-heavy burdens on poor women through increased demands on their time or incomes. Improvements in quality of care, which take account of women’s perceptions and experiences, are important in order to increase demand for services. Furthermore, this analysis suggests the need for multidisciplinary inputs into the design and implementation of health policies and projects, for the systematic collection and use of gender-disaggregated data in health policy and planning and for non-health sector strategies to address socio-economic and legal constraints to improved health.
