Promoting and integrating gender, equity, human rights and ethnicity
A comprehensive approach to cross-cutting themes towards the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals
The Integrated Health Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (IHSLAC) Project is a cooperation agreement between PAHO and the Department of Global Affairs of the Government of Canada (GAC). The project runs from 2016 to 2019, focusing on improving the health of children, young girls and women, including mothers, in situations of vulnerability in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The initiative aims mainly at strengthening health systems, reducing the burden of communicable diseases and improving nutritional practices in the targeted populations. GAC has invested $18.5M CAD (approx. 14 M USD) in the project, with activities implemented in 11 countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Suriname.
IHSLAC Project is PAHO’s largest initiative to move forward with the agenda of the health of women, children and adolescents, sexual and reproductive health, and human rights and equity. It is aligned with and responds to Canada’s international development priorities in maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and contributes to the achievement of PAHO’s Strategic Plans.
The feminist agenda: translating targets into action
Canada’s commitment to a comprehensive approach to health and efforts to address cross-cutting themes and generate innovation have framed a unique multisectoral and interdepartmental strategy that is finely aligned with PAHO’s work. Collaboration between PAHO and GAC is key to achieving gender equality towards the accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goal 5, which is also integral to all dimensions of inclusive and sustainable development.
The actions implemented in this project illustrate that it is possible to effectively include and mainstream cultural diversity, equity and the social determinants in the program and translate a theoretical agenda into real actions that promote empowerment and impact the health of women and adolescents.
The project’s many successful investments include the development and application of a methodology for intercultural dialogues and engagement to generate culturally appropriate solutions to health challenges affecting women and adolescent, and training and capacity building activities to address and operationalize the feminist agenda (such as training and advocacy methodology to increase access to long-acting contraceptives for adolescents). In the city of El Alto, Bolivia, IHSLAC has implemented a model to train hospital staff in highly impacted areas and provided emergency equipment to prevent maternal death, which has already saved the lives of more than 100 women between 2016 and 2018.
One more life saved
The story of Carla
Carla Botetano Yucra lives with her three children and her mother in the city of El Alto, in Bolivia, and she earns a very modest income selling shoes. She was pregnant with her fourth baby when she began to experience pain and bleeding.