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Taking Sex and Gender into account in Infectious Disease Programmes

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This course aims to strengthen the capabilities of public health policy and programme managers in incorporating a gender perspective into disease management. Participants learn to apply an analytical framework for understanding how sex and gender affect and interact with emerging infectious diseases.

The course should appeal to the interest of participants in strengthening their competence in dealing with gender perspectives in public health programmes, in particular within health emergency settings.

Photo credits: WHO / Panos Pictures / Saiyna Bashir

Self-paced
Language: English
Health topic

Course information

This course is based on the WHO report "Taking sex and gender into account in emerging infectious disease programmes: an analytical framework" and guides the learner in five modules through the concepts and principles of the Gender Analysis Framework and the related tools.

This course targets public health professionals working at global, regional, national, and/or local/ subnational levels. To benefit from this course, participants should have a sound understanding of at least one of the following:

  • Infectious Disease Programmes
  • Health Emergency Response
  • Health inequalities

A sound understanding of gender programming is not required. However, some familiarity with this field of work will allow users to gain a more profound analytical understanding by applying these tools.

The course should appeal to the interest of participants in strengthening their competence in dealing with gender perspectives in public health programmes, in particular within health emergency settings.

By increasing the understanding of the relevance of gender for health and developing skills to identify these power imbalances and use this to inform programme design and implementation, the course aims to contribute to the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PRSEAH).

After having completed this training, the participants will:

  • Explain ways in which sex and gender interact with infectious disease outbreaks
  • Apply the gender analysis matrix to assess how sex and gender impact the risk populations of outbreaks
  • Explain and apply the two tools from the report "Taking sex and gender into account in emerging infectious disease programmes – an analytical framework.":
    • Gender analysis matrix
    • Modified gender analysis matrix on mainstreaming gender into health security and emergencies
  • Explain what other tools are available to use in analysing the interaction of sex and gender with
    • infectious disease risks
    • exposure to animal diseases
    • communicable disease surveillance

This course is fully designed for self-learning without moderation or pacing.

Course duration: Approximately 4 hours.

Certificates: A Certificate of Achievement certificate will be available to participants who score at least 75% of the total points available in all graded assessments. A Confirmation of Participation is also available to participants who complete 100% of the course materials. Participants who receive a Certificate of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.

Course contents

  • Welcome to the course:

    Introduction to the course
  • Module 1: Introduction to sex, gender, life-course and the framework

  • Module 2: The tool: gender analysis matrix

  • Module 3: The analysis: revealing how sex and gender affect infectious disease transmission and outcomes

  • Module 4: The application: informing action plans

  • Module 5: Surveillance

  • Downloadable Videos:

    In this section, you can download all videos of this course. However, the user interactions are not included.

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Learners enrolled: 4226

Certificate Requirements

  • Gain a Record of Achievement by earning at least 75% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.
  • Gain a Confirmation of Participation by completing at least 100% of the course material.
  • Gain an Open Badge by completing the course.