Join K4Health on International Women’s Day to Commemorate 100 Years of Women’s Rights

On this Tuesday, March 8, 2011 join Knowledge for Health in commemorating the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. IWD is a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women all over the world. Nearly 25 countries including Afghanistan, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zambia recognize the day as an official holiday.
 
This year marks the theme, “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: pathway to decent work for women.” In a message, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for more efforts to address the gender gap in education, discrimination and violence in the workplace and community, and sexual violence in conflict zones. He encouraged the urgent need to save lives and improve the health of women and children to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Ki-moon further promoted use of technology. “Cell phones and the Internet, for example, can enable women to improve the health and well-being of their families, take advantage of income-earning opportunities, and protect themselves from exploitation and vulnerability,” he said.
 
Events include a march across London’s Millennium Bridge led by musician and activist Annie Lennox and a rally in Washington, DC to raise awareness of marginalized women. In Liberia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will welcome and honor Madam Bachelet, executive director of UN Women and former president of Chile. Women’s groups and charities in South Africa are organizing events. Air India is operating its Delhi to Toronto flight Monday night with an all-woman crew – one of 13 flights with an all-female crew to honor the day. LinkTV will feature videos on international women’s issues on its ViewChange site. 
 
International Women’s Day emerged as part of the socialist movement during a period of rapid industrialization a century ago, when women fought for their right to vote and safety in the workplace among other issues. The day has grown to represent the fight for equality for women everywhere.
 
At K4Health, we have resources available for those championing women’s access to education, training and science and technology. These resources include:
 
  • IGWG Gender and Health Toolkit: The Gender and Health Toolkit brings together practical resources to integrate and mainstream gender in health policies, programs, and institutions.
  • mHealth Toolkit: The mHealth Toolkit provides resources on the use of mobile technology to design, manage, and measure health programs.
  • Peace Corps – Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Toolkit: This toolkit includes resources developed by Peace Corps Volunteers and staff as well as external partners to help with maternal and newborn project programming and education.
  • Community-Based Family Planning Toolkit: This toolkit helps policy makers, program managers, service providers, and other audiences improve access to and quality of community-based family planning services for women and men.
  • Peace Corps - Women in Development/ Gender and Development: This toolkit, developed by Peace Corps staff, provides resources to Volunteers engaged in Women in Development/ Gender and Development (WID/GAD) activities or to Volunteers interested in including more gender-sensitive perspective in their activities.
  • Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health 101 ELearning Course: This course seeks to provide learners with an introduction to gender and reproductive and sexual health and introduce the steps of gender integration in reproductive and sexual health programs.
We hope that activities on International Women’s Day will help drive knowledge exchange worldwide, as well as enhance global efforts to ensure essential family planning and reproductive health information reaches those who need it the most.
 
Kavitha Nallathambi is a Communication Specialist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and works on the Knowledge for Health Project, which is funded by USAID and implemented by CCP, Management Sciences for Health and FHI.