Ministerial Initiative for Health

Events

Sixth Annual Meeting of Women Ministers of Health

Ministerial Leadership Network

Fifth Annual Meeting of Women Ministers of Health

Public Health Fellows

Ministerial Initiative Leadership

Globally, health indicators show that women are being disproportionately affected by preventable disease.  Since 1985, the percentage of women living with HIV/AIDS has risen from 35% to 48% worldwide, and that figure is continuing to rise at an alarming rate.  For example, young women now make up 60% of all 15-24 year olds living with AIDS[1]. Although this trend is most pronounced in developing countries, and Africa in particular, new evidence also shows that prevention efforts in Western Europe are faltering as they are outpaced by the changing patterns of infection.  The factors which increase women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS are partly biological as they are more vulnerable to infection, but the key factors that explain women’s increasing rates of HIV/AIDS are largely social: both behavioral and cultural, and often underpinned by economic insecurity and legal discrimination. A functioning and fair health system would alleviate the burden of disease currently falling on women and girls.  As the head of the public health systems in their countries, Ministers of Health must be at the core of any effort to raise the status of global women’s health. 

In 2004, the Ministerial Initiative for Women Ministers of Health was established to develop strategies for ministers to work together to shape health, development and human rights policies at the national, regional and international level. It has convened annually in conjunction with the World Health Assembly in Geneva to discuss issues of common concern with the aim of influencing the agendas of international dialogue around women’s health. The Ministerial Initiative for Health holds the potential of building a critical mass to catalyze for change - shaping and informing health policy-making from the national to the global level. The Sixth Annual Meeting of Women Ministers of Health will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on May.

Focusing on the key issue areas of women's and reproductive health, the Council and its Ministerial Initiative for Health are presently undertaking a proposed five year program entitled the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Women’s Health. The primary aims of this program are to build the capacity, political leadership, and expertise of ministries, to coordinate donor aid and establish equitable health budgeting for greater efficiency and impact, and to strengthen relationships between government and civil society organizations to connect grassroots work to policymaking. The Initiative was officially launched September 18th, 2006 in Maputo, Mozambique on the occasion of the Special Session of the African Union Conference of Ministers of Health.

In 2009, the Council is launching the Public Health Graduate Fellowship Program as an extension of its existing Council of Women World Leaders Graduate Fellowship Program,. This program will place students from top-tier graduate schools of public health - the School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley; the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; the University of Michigan School of Public Health; and the Columbia School of Public Health - in the ministries of members of the Council’s Ministerial Initiative for Health  as well as in international organizations for a period of 10-12 weeks during the summer months. Our participating sites, in developed and developing countries alike, include: the Ministry of Health in Samoa; the World Health Organization; the Ministry of Health in Finland; the Ministry of Health in Lesotho; the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Liberia; the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs in Spain; the Ministry of Healthcare in the Republic of Moldova; the Department of Health and Social Affairs in Micronesia; the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia; the Ministry of Health in Portugal; and the Ministry of Public Health in Ecuador. Graduate fellows will have the opportunity to gain firsthand experience and an increased understanding of international public health issues. Working at the forefront of international public health with ministers and area experts will allow them to witness the various ways in which leadership is manifested globally.