At the Lower Mekong Initiative (LMI) Second Regional Working Group Meeting held in Vientiane in November 2011, representatives from the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) requested technical assistance from development partners to strengthen the newly established Division for the Promotion of Women’s Advancement within the Ministry of Health, and support for the Ministry’s gender equality agenda more broadly. 

Reflecting the spirit of regional collaboration upon which the LMI is founded, USAID and its partner, the Health Policy Project (HPP), developed a peer learning approach to respond to these priorities.  This resulted in the Technical Exchange on Gender and Health between the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) and the Lao PDR.

The purpose of the Technical Exchange is to promote regional dialogue on, and strengthen capacity for, gender integration in health governance, policies, and programs, particularly within in the sectors of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) and maternal and child health (MCH).  

The Technical Exchange was designed through extensive consultation with both governments and their development partners and seeks to complement existing initiatives underway to strengthen governance mechanisms, such as gender directorates within ministries of health and ministries of women or gender, with mandates to mainstream gender in health.  

Source:  Asia Connect

Source URL:  http://blogs.usaid.gov/asiaconnect/?p=703

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