Gender, Health and the Millennium Development Goals

Abstract

"The eighth annual meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research was held in Mexico City in November 2004. The focus of this meeting was ‘Health Research to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals’ and an overview report is available at www.globalforumhealth.org. The gender dimensions of the discussions at Forum 8 are examined in more detail in this resource briefing. The document begins with a brief account of the emergence of the Millennium Development Goals and their links to wider health and gender issues. This is followed by a review of some of the major criticisms of the goals from an equity perspective. Section 2 explores the links between gender and the health-related Millennium Development Goals and the implications of these for research priorities. The last section (Section 3) outlines some of the gender issues related to the ‘MDG-plus’ approach adopted at Forum 8. The document will draw throughout on presentations from Forum 8 and from Forums 6 and 7 where many of these questions were also debated."(pg 5)