Gender empowerment in the health aid sector: locating best practice in the Australian context

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 2017, the Australian Government announced the creation of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Regional Health Security. In the same year, the Australian government investment in gender equality and empowerment in overseas development assistance reached the highest percentage ever recorded in Australian aid history. However, the health sector (excluding reproductive and family planning) has the lowest percentage of aid projects where gender equality is being mainstreamed as a primary objective. This article examines why this is the case and suggests what can be done to address the health aid sector’s gender gap. This article argues that in Australia’s largest health aid sector investment, the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, there is a disconnect between the Australian government’s gender empowerment objective and its relative absence of gender inclusion policies and objectives. The solution is to prioritise gender inclusion across all health aid sector programming. Specifically, to study the lessons learned from the Australia’s gender inclusion practices in women’s health aid sector programming and to integrate them into the areas of health research and investment in emerging infectious disease outbreak response.