Kaduna health stakeholders put on gender-lens

Gender issues are identified as key contributors to health of women, girls and babies and also contribute to deaths during pregnancy or childbirth. Community Maternal Perinatal Death Surveillance & Response (cMPDSR) and its social autopsy tool has been rolled out in Kaduna State with an aim to identify causes and suggest mechanisms to prevent future loss of lives for mothers and babies.

To ensure gender is reflected in the cMPDSR process, especially the social autopsy sessions, cMPDSR stakeholders in Kaduna were trained on gender and facilitation skills. This was aided by a gender-lensed c-MPDSR social autopsy facilitation tool. Participants were trained on how to identify gender and social inclusion gaps issues that might be among the root causes of maternal and perinatal deaths, and develop actions to address them in subsequent social autopsy meetings.

Non-representation of persons living with disability and inadequate participation of men and non- indigenous residents in the social autopsy meetings were also identified as apparent gaps that need to be addressed going forward to make the practice more inclusive. As next steps, the stakeholders will extend invitations to representatives of persons living with disabilities and non- indigenous residents as well as adjust meeting times to encourage men participation in the meetings.  

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