V Competition: Best Practices that Incorporate a Gender Equality Perspective in Health

The Office of Gender, Ethnicity, and Health (AD/GEH) and the Family and Community Health Office of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) aim to acknowledge the best practices of experiences that incorporate gender equality in health. This contest is open to current and previous projects/programmes in the Americas. The objective of the contest is to identify the experiences that best address the differential needs and opportunities of men and women in the sphere of health (i.e., gender sensitive), and, in particular, those which seek to transform the attitudes of health care providers and of women and men in order to improve their opportunities to enjoy optimal health (i.e., gender transformative).

In this competition, the best experiences will be selected and rewarded in a transparent process. The awards will be given to experiences originating from:

• An organisation in the private or public sector (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, national Office of Women’s/Gender Affairs, non-governmental organisation (NGO), academic institution, etc.) that coordinates with the health sector in developing a programme for the prevention, treatment, and care for people with HIV, with a gender equality in health perspective.
  
• An organisation supported by PAHO that is developing a programme and/or project, regional, national, or local, that incorporates the perspective of gender equality in health.
  

A representative of each selected "best practice" will be invited by the Director of PAHO to present the experience during the March 2012 International Women’s Day celebration in Washington, DC, United States (US). Further, each institution that represents the winning experience will receive US$5,000 in order to systematise the best practices and lessons learned from their experience. PAHO will give support during this process and will include the publication in its database of best practices.