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Between October 1993 and January 1995, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) sponsored a series of four regional workshops on gender, health, and sustainable development. The workshops were held in Nairobi, Kenya (5-8 October 1993), Montevideo, Uruguay (26-29 April 1994), Bridgetown, Barbados (6-9 December 1994), and Singapore (23-26 January 1995). These workshops evolved from the growing understanding that women in developing countries face significantly different health risks than men and also experience different constraints when resolving their health problems. They also stemmed from the recognition that major gaps exist in our understanding of gender and health, largely because much previous research, to some extent, bypassed women.

The workshops brought together scientists and social scientists with expertise in a wide range of areas of women's health. Participants came from Bangladesh, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Commonwealth of Dominica, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nicaragua, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, St Lucia, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Representatives from a number of different international agencies were present, including staff from IDRC.

The workshops were designed to examine four priority areas that urgently require more research from a gender perspective: AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome), health and the working environment, tropical diseases, and barriers to quality health care. Additional issues were integrated into each workshop based on regional priorities -- nutrition was given special attention at the Caribbean workshop, health issues of indigenous peoples were explored at the Latin American workshop, and the effects of war on women's health were addressed in Asia. The participants also sought to translate their insights into recommendations for future research to promote health and welfare for all. Specific workshop objectives were:

• To encourage health researchers, nongovernmental organizations (ngos), and policymakers to incorporate within their research, activities, and policy work, the interrelated dimensions of gender and sustainable development;

• To share gender and health research from various parts of the developing world;

• To examine methodologies for gender and health research;

• To identify key gaps in gender and health research;

• To discuss health within the broad context of the conditions and forces that influence the lives of women and men; and

• To compare and contrast the issues facing various countries in the developing world and the strategies used to overcome obstacles to health.

The exchange of insights and experiences among participants at each regional workshop was highly constructive and beneficial. The cross-fertilization of ideas and perspectives that resulted from bringing together participants with different areas of expertise from various parts of each region was particularly enriching.

Although each workshop was unique, common issues, concerns, and recommendations clearly emerged. This book synthesizes the presentations, discussions, and group work undertaken at the four workshops and pulls together the cumulative wisdom of the participants. Additional materials have also been consulted and integrated into the synthesis. In particular, information from papers submitted to essay competitions between 1991 and 1994 sponsored by IDRC and the World Health Organization (WHO) Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (tdr) on gender and tropical diseases was incorporated. Papers presented at a October 1994 workshop on the quality of health care for women in developing countries (sponsored by WHO and the Ford Foundation) were also reviewed.

There is clearly a need for further interdisciplinary research on various aspects of women's health to integrate a gender perspective into the research protocol as it is conceived, carried out, analyzed, and disseminated. Researchers and organizations from around the world can achieve significant advancements in research in this area by working cooperatively and consolidating their experiences and results. It is hoped that this publication will serve as a basis for further dialogue and initiatives aimed at improving the health and well-being of women and inspire more collaborative work and networking among biomedical and social science researchers.

Jennifer Kitts

Janet Hatcher Roberts

January 1996

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