In a conversation hosted by The Global Malaria and Gender Community of Practice (CoP), global health experts from around the world discussed integrating gender in malaria responses. The virtual meeting, entitled, “Reflections on Entry Points to Promote Gender Transformative Approaches in Malaria Programs and Interventions” was moderated by Malaria No More’s Anu Khanal, Global Policy and Advocacy Director.
A commitment to gender equality in the fight against malaria
The discussion on gender transformative approaches, or approaches that tackle the root causes of gender inequality, began with a recommitment to gender equity in the fight against malaria by CoP Advisory Committee Members – as well as a call for increased global action.
Supported by the Gates Foundation, the goal of CoP is to work with relevant stakeholders and partners to co-create, catalyze, and develop a cohesive, strategic, and measurable approach that integrates gender into malaria work and identifies gender-transformative opportunities to advance gender equity and the fight against malaria.
“Each of us is dedicated to leveraging our expertise to promote and advocate for gender transformative strategies in research, prevention and treatment,” said Maud Majeres Lugand, Medicines for Malaria Venture Associate Director, Social Research, Access & Product Management. “Gender influences every aspect of our lives. And in the context of malaria, the stakes are especially high. Women are disproportionately at risk due to both physiological factors and deeply rooted cultural norms.”
A demonstration of gender initiatives from The Global Fund
Next, attendees heard from Suse Halima Matamwa, The Global Fund’s Senior Program Officer, Gender who presented on gender transformative health programming. Given the critical link between gender equality and health outcomes, and the vast inequality still faced by many women and girls today, the Global Fund reaffirmed its commitment to maximizing gender equality through the programs it supports.
Matamwa shared the Global Fund’s ambition to scaling up comprehensive programs that remove gender-related barriers to services, as well as integrating and embedding approaches that go deeper and tackle the root causes of gender inequality. This includes approaches that transform harmful gender norms and gendered power imbalances that prevent almost half of women and girls globally from making their own decisions about their health.
The Global Fund shared details of their new gender equality monitoring and accountability mechanisms. These include a new Gender Equality Marker that assesses the extent to which gender equality is integrated across all Global Fund grants, and the inclusion of gender equality key performance indicators within the national programs funded by the Global Fund.
“I’m also a mother, born and raised in Tanzania, a country that accounts for almost 4% of all global malaria cases, “said Matamwa. “This topic is very dear to my heart, and I feel incredibly lucky to be discussing it with a group of experts that share the same cause. So, thank you.”
Matamwa then shared lessons learned during the initial stages of the Gender Equality Fund, launched in 2023 to accelerate progress towards gender equality through community engagement and empowerment.
Key lessons included:
- Recognizing many community-based organizations working on HIV, TB, and malaria want to be engaged and leading work to advance gender equality
- Working in a context of relatively few dedicated feminist CBOs focusing on malaria and gender.
- Overcoming limited investments at the intersections of gender and malaria directly to communities.
- Supporting the capacity of existing CBOs working on malaria to include feminist and gender-equality oriented approaches
A dialogue on effectively integrating gender in malaria responses
The conversation, attended by more than 80 experts and members of the malaria community, concluded with an interactive dialogue among attendees.
Matamwa requested the group provide responses to the question: What are the barriers to integrating gender-transformative malaria interventions in national programs and funding requests?
In a real-time word cloud, attendee responses included words such as: cultural norms, resources, education, lack of capacity, lack of funds, competing priorities and more.
Matamwa then asked the group: How can we best support communities and civil society to advance gender equality in the malaria response?
Attendee responses included: capacity strengthening, policy reform, flexible funding, capacity building, and more.
Attendees were also offered an opportunity to provide input and pose questions. Several discussed the Malaria Matchbox Tool, an equity assessment toolkit supported by the RBM Partnership and The Global Fund to improve the effectiveness of malaria programs. It is designed to empower programs to examine and tackle the root causes of health inequities, including gender inequality, that create barriers to access and uptake of lifesaving malaria services.
“For me, a key success in the matchbox approach has been that it is integrated into existing country processes such as national strategic plans, malaria program reviews and annual plans - which helps to ensure mainstreaming of gender as well as longer term sustainability,” said Dr. Melanie Renshaw, African Leaders Malaria Alliance Principal Director.
“I would suggest two key actions when wanting to do more work on gender and malaria: First, work with gender equality, women's and feminist organizations in country. Second, consider a gender assessment or malaria matchbox assessment to assess gender equality issues and gaps to inform programming,” said Thea Willis, Senior Gender Adviser at the Global Fund.
Others emphasized including and working with relevant stakeholders including National Malaria Programs.
Matamwa concluded the discussion, saying “I hope we can take these insights gathered today back to our work, remembering that integrating gender into health interventions is a way towards more effective and even more sustainable malaria interventions.”
###
