For International Women’s Day 2023, 1 750 women who deliver vaccines were invited to a “remote coffee”, a private meeting with one or two randomly-assigned partners.
This issue of The Double Loop shares some of their reflections on who they met with and what they learned.
The Double Loop #004: Overcoming gender barriers shares three stories about the impact of gender on immunization programming in India, Liberia and one further context:
#004 Special issue: Overcoming gender barriers
Catch up with the Women Who Deliver Vaccines International Women’s Day event:
https://www.learning.foundation/iwd
Your experience and insights help other members of the Movement for IA2030. Click on the link at the end of each section to share:
If you are a donor, partner, or researcher interested in these insights, we encourage you to share your thoughts or write directly to Ian Steed, Insights Unit Editor.
What are the barriers that you see to women in immunization? Do health workforces treat women equitably? What can you do - as a man or a woman - to address gender challenges in immunization?
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Meugang Brigitte is a nurse working for the Ministry of Health in Cameroon at health facility level. Here is what she took away from meeting with a fellow woman who works in immunization:
“Our remote coffee happened in conviviality. Given our multiple occupations, we were able to distribute our meeting times. Following this, we spoke about the measles outbreak that is raging in the Centre Region of Cameroon, as well as the EPI response. To this end, it was a question of whether this was also the case in Mali. By coincidence, she tells me that, not being directly in the vaccination service, they had three cases of measles in the fourth region of Mali, that is to say a 35-year-old man and two small children who even died, and who were also malnourished. From this exchange, I learned about the technique through which sensitization takes place. So I appreciated the establishment of social development which supports the women's group with other leaders for community awareness.
We found together that the major cause of outbreaks in both countries is the reluctance to vaccinate in the face of COVID-19 and which today has consequences through epidemics. I let her know in my turn that in Cameroon, most parents are much less informed, and do not bring children with measles to the hospital, saying that it is only treated traditionally. Faced with this situation, we still have a lot of work to do in the community for behavior change. At the end of our interview, we kept in touch, in order to exchange from time to time.”