Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument Saskia Bakker

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Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument
Saskia Bakker

• A tool for NGOs to monitor
• womens health rights

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Aim and method

• Aim
• lobby for better policies
• close the gap between government promises and
  practice
• Method
• Link human rights commitments with policy
  practice
• Link national and international influences
• Directed at policy in its broadest sense

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• Target group
• For NGOs womens, human rights and/health
  organizations

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Development

• HeRWAI has been developed by HOM in cooperation
  with
• Naripokkho- Bangladesh
• Fida- Kenya
• Si Mujer- Nicaragua
• IWRAW-AP- Malaysia
• Wemos- the Netherlands

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Testing process

• HeRWAI has been tested by
• Naripokkho- Bangladesh
• Fida- Kenya
• IWRAW-AP- Malaysia
• World Population Foundation- Pakistan
• Johannes Wier Society the Netherlands

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Structure of HeRWAI

• HeRWAI consists of
• introductory chapters
• A quick scan to check if HeRWAI is a usefull tool
  in a particular situation
• Guidelines for analysis in 6 steps
• Annexes including a glossary, a work plan and a
  discussion guide for a fast analysis
• See next slide for the 6 steps

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Step 1 Identifying the policy

• Purpose Deciding on the focus of the analysis

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Step 2 Exploring the governments commitments

• Purpose
• Find out which promises the government has made
  that are relevant for the policy

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Step 3 Capacity to implement the policy

• Purpose
• Find out what the government has to implement the
  policy human and financial resources.
• Consider which factors limit or expand the
  implementation capacity

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Step 4 The impact on health rights of women

• Purpose
• Find out what the effects are of the policy on
  womens lives
• Distinguish between positive, negative or neutral
  effects.
• Determine if womens rights are violated, which
  and why.

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Step 5Establishing the state obligations

• Purpose
• Decide which government commitments are relevant
  for the problems noted in step 4.
• Decide for which human rights problems you can
  hold your government accountable.

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Step 6 Conclusions and way forward

• Purpose
• Formulate recommendations to improve the policy
  and its impact
• Develop an action plan to lobby for
  implementation of the recommendations

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Step 6 Conclusions and way forward

• What will you do with the information?
• What will be your recommendations or demands to
  the government?
• What will be your action plan to lobby for
  improvement of the policy?
• What does your organization need to execute the
  above plans?
• Can you involve others in the execution of your
  plans?

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Experiences

• HeRWAI has been/ is being used in the following
  countries
• Kenya, for maternity leave provisions in the
  labour law
• Pakistan, analysing the education policy to look
  for arguments to include life skill education in
  the school curriculum
• Netherlands, to assess the impact of the closure
  of street prostitution zones in two cities
• Bangladesh, analysing policies regarding maternal
  mortality due to eclampsia
• Netherlands, on measures to prevent female
  genital mutilation among migrants
• Nepal, three studies are starting, on safe
  motherhood, prolapsed uterus and violence against
  women.

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• Thank you for your attention