Integrating Poverty and Gender into Health Programmes

The set of modules that comprise this Sourcebook are intended for use in pre-service and in-service training of health professionals. It is expected that this publication will also be of use to health policy-makers and program managers, either as a reference document or in conjunction with in-service training.

This module is designed to improve the awareness, knowledge and skills of health professionals on poverty and gender concerns in the field of nutrition. It is divided into six sections. Section 1 explores key factors that contribute to nutritional health, how nutritional status is measured, and key nutritional needs through the life cycle. Section 2 examines the links between poverty and gender and nutrition. Section 3 discusses why it is important for health professionals to address poverty and gender concerns in nutrition, from efficiency, equity and human rights perspectives. Section 4 discusses how health professionals can improve nutritional health and illustrates pro-poor and gender-responsive interventions to promote and improve nutritional outcomes. Section 5 provides notes for training facilitators and finally, section 6 is a collection of additional resources and references to support health professionals in their work in this field.