Women’s Health & Empowerment Center of Women’s Health & Empowerment Center of ExpertiseExpertise

Vision: We envision a world in which all women and girls are empowered and healthy. Mission: Our mission is to promote justice, equity and scientific advances to reduce gender and health disparities globally.

COE Vision of EmpowermentCOE Vision of Empowerment

Empowerment is the Empowerment is the ABILITYABILITY to toACTACT on choices, involving on choices, involvingthree related processes:three related processes:1.1. Address causes of Address causes of

disempowerment;disempowerment;

2.2. Improve women’s access to and Improve women’s access to and control over current and future control over current and future resources; andresources; and

3.3. Use improved access to resources Use improved access to resources & decision-making to achieve & decision-making to achieve individual and collective well-being individual and collective well-being and health.and health.

Women’s Health & Empowerment Organization

Education Committee

Co-chairs: Amy Levi, CNM, PhD (UCSF), Deborah Mindry, PhD (UCLA)

Research Committee

Co-chairs: Shari Dworkin, PhD (UCSF), Ndola Prata, MD, MPH (UCB)

Knowledge Dissemination

Committee

Co-chairs: Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH (UCSF), Paige Passano, MPH (UCB)

Fundraising and Partnerships Committee

Chair: Philip Darney, MD, MSc (UCSF)

UC Global Health Institute(UCGHI)

WHE Leadership Core

WHE Co-Directors: Craig Cohen, MD, MPH (UCSF)Paula Tavrow, PhD, MSc, MALD (UCLA)

Co-Director Alternates: Nancy Milliken, MD (UCSF)Lara Stemple, JD (UCLA)

Education Representative: Amy Levi, CNM, PhD (UCSF)

Standing Committee Co-Chairs

COE CoordinatorLindsey Zwicker, JD, MPP

Student Committee

Steering Committee

Focal points from each of the campuses

Women’s Health & Empowerment GoalsWomen’s Health & Empowerment Goals

Advancing sexual and reproductive Advancing sexual and reproductive health and rightshealth and rights

Safe motherhoodSafe motherhood

Reducing violence against women Reducing violence against women

Family planning and reproductive Family planning and reproductive health technologieshealth technologies

HIV/AIDS prevention, care and HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatmenttreatment

Reduction of environmental threats to Reduction of environmental threats to womenwomen

Women’s Health & Empowerment Women’s Health & Empowerment Contribution to the FieldContribution to the Field

Key ComponentsKey Components

• Focus on the interplay and interconnectedness of women’s empowerment and health

• Conduct research on women’s empowerment and health; connect research with education and training of new leaders

Inter-Disciplinary ApproachInter-Disciplinary Approach

Health Sciences Medicine Public Health Nursing & Midwifery

Empowerment Sciences Anthropology Law Sociology Arts & Culture Psychology Political science

DEFINITIONS OF WOMEN’S DEFINITIONS OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENTEMPOWERMENT

From thefreedictionary.com: From thefreedictionary.com:

em·pow·er  (m-pour) tr.v. em·pow·ered, em·pow·er·ing, em·pow·ers:

1. To invest with power, especially legal power or official authority

2. To equip or supply with an ability; enable

U.N. Agency Definition after ICPD:U.N. Agency Definition after ICPD:

“Women's empowerment has five components:

1. Women's sense of self-worth;

2. Their right to have and to determine choices;

3. Their right to have access to opportunities and resources;

4. Their right to have the power to control their own lives, both within and outside the home; and

5. Their ability to influence the direction of social change to create a more just social and economic order, nationally and internationally.”

Key Domains / Dimensions of Key Domains / Dimensions of Women’s EmpowermentWomen’s Empowerment

Economic

Socio-cultural

Familial/interpersonal

Legal

Political

Psychological

Levels of EmpowermentLevels of Empowerment

Individual

Household

Community

Regional

National

Global

Measuring Women’s EmpowermentMeasuring Women’s Empowerment

Social and Cultural MeasuresSocial and Cultural Measures Mobility/Freedom of movement*

Social capital

Membership in an association

Ability to interact in the public sphere

Public status

Participation in non-family groups

Attitudes about gender roles

Acceptability of IPV and refusing sex

* Most frequently used in the literature

Familial / InterpersonalFamilial / InterpersonalHousehold decision-making power*

Pulerwitz sexual relationship power scale (SRPS)*

Age at first birth

Control over spouse selection

Natal family support

Living with in-laws

Inter-spousal differences—education, age

* Most frequently used in the literature

Economic MeasuresEconomic Measures

Control over earnings*

Access to and control of family resources*

Having a bank account

Access to credits

Ownership of assets and land

Relative contribution to family support

* Most frequently used in the literature

Legal MeasuresLegal Measures

Knowledge of legal rights

Inheritance law

Land rights

Laws against GBV

Access to and control over land

Political MeasuresPolitical Measures

Ability to exercise the right to vote

Knowledge of political system

Representation in local/regional government

Participation in public protests and political campaigning

Psychological MeasuresPsychological Measures

Self-efficacy

Psychological well-being

Fulfillment

Research ProjectsResearch Projects

Family AIDS Care and Education Services Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES)(FACES)

Family-focused HIV prevention, care and treatment program in Nairobi and Nyanza Province

Began in 2004

UCSF/KEMRI collaboration

President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)/CDC funded

Partners with Provincial & District Ministries of Health

Platform for implementation research

21

FACES Sites as of Dec. 2010FACES Sites as of Dec. 2010

Nyanza Province

Kisumu (17 sites)

Suba (42 sites)

Rongo (14 sites)

Migori (44 sites)

Nairobi (2 sites)

22

Enrollment in HIV Care & TreatmentEnrollment in HIV Care & Treatment

FACES-affiliated Research ProjectsFACES-affiliated Research Projects

Integration of family planning services into HIV Care and Treatment

Integration of HIV Care and Treatment into MCH

Cervical cancer screening and treatment in HIV-infected women

Formative research for gender-based violence intervention

Agricultural intervention for food security and HIV health outcomes, Shamba Maisha

Shamba MaishaShamba Maisha Objective Objective

Test hypothesis that multisectoral agricultural intervention leads to improved health of families living with HIV.

Shamba MaishaShamba Maisha: Model: Model

Education and Knowledge DisseminationEducation and Knowledge DisseminationKey InitiativesKey Initiatives

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Women’s Health Postdoctoral Fellowship in Women’s Health & Empowerment& Empowerment

Principle Invesitgators:Principle Invesitgators: Craig Cohen, MD, MPH (UCSF)Craig Cohen, MD, MPH (UCSF)

Professor in the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences

Lara Stemple, JD (UCLA)Lara Stemple, JD (UCLA) Director of Graduate Studies and

Director of the Health and Human Rights Law Project at UCLA School of Law.

The Fellows:The Fellows: Karuna S. Chibber, DrPH, MHS, MA (UCSF)Karuna S. Chibber, DrPH, MHS, MA (UCSF)

Emily Nagisa Keehn, JD (UCLA)Emily Nagisa Keehn, JD (UCLA)

Deborah Mindry, PhD (UCLA)Deborah Mindry, PhD (UCLA)

Manisha Munshi, JD (UCLA)Manisha Munshi, JD (UCLA)

Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, MPH (UCSF)Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, MPH (UCSF)

Women’s Health & Empowerment and Women’s Health & Empowerment and UCSF GHS Masters programUCSF GHS Masters program

UCSF Global Health Sciences (GHS) Masters started 2008-09

One of kind in U.S.: 7 students (’08-’09) to 18 (’09-’10) to 30 (’10-’11), just matriculated 34

¾ students express interest in WH&E; ½ of ’10-’11 students with related fieldwork

CoE inserting WH&E discipline into GHS MS year long elective course fieldwork projects mentoring

Intensive, two-week, 4-credit interdisciplinary program (UCLA Aug 22-Sept 2)

Open to incoming and current graduate or professional students in any discipline

Will provide students interested in improving women’s health and well-being with knowledge and skills from several disciplines

Instructors from UCLA, UCSF, and other UC campuses

Book Commissioned by UC PressBook Commissioned by UC Press

• In Justice and In Health: A New Era in Women’s Health and Empowerment

• First textbook/general book of its kind “marrying” disciplines of WH&E

• Executive editors: Shari Dworkin, Monica Gandhi, Paige Passano (Associate: Lindsey Zwicker)

• Chapter authors from global call for abstracts

WH&E Book ProjectWH&E Book ProjectFrameworkFramework

• 3 sections, 3 major tools of empowerment, each with chapters across life course– Section 1:Sociocultural and Educational

Interventions• Section editors: Dallas Swendeman/Paula Tavrow

– Section 2: Economic Interventions• Section editors: Shelley Grabe/Sheri Weiser

– Section 3: Systems Interventions • Section editors: Ndola Prata/ Joanna Weinberg

“Study after study has taught us that there is no tool more effective for development than the empowerment of women”

- Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan

Thank youThank you

UCGHI, Center of Expertise in Women’s Health & Empowerment:UCGHI, Center of Expertise in Women’s Health & Empowerment:

http://www.ucghi.universityofcalifornia.edu/coes/womens-health/http://www.ucghi.universityofcalifornia.edu/coes/womens-health/index.aspx index.aspx