Health Rights of Women Assessment Instrument Saskia Bakker

1. Health Rights of Women Assessment InstrumentSaskia Bakker A tool for NGOs to monitor women’s health rights

2. 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

3. Target group • For NGOs: women’s, human rights and/health organizations

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

5. Testing process • HeRWAI has been tested by : • Naripokkho- Bangladesh • Fida- Kenya • IWRAW-AP- Malaysia • World Population Foundation- Pakistan • Johannes Wier Society – the Netherlands

6. 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

8. Step 1: Identifying the policy Purpose: Deciding on the focus of the analysis

9. Step 2: Exploring the government’s commitments Purpose: • Find out which promises the government has made that are relevant for the policy

10. Step 3: Capacityto 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

11. Step 4: The impact on health rights of women Purpose: • Find out what the effects are of the policy on women’s lives • Distinguish between positive, negative or neutral effects. • Determine if women’s rights are violated, which and why.

12. Step 5:Establishing 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.

13. 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

14. 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?

15. 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.

16. Thank you for your attention