GENDER TRAINING IN PAKISTAN: AN ANALYSIS FOR WAY FORWARD

The decade of 1970s focused on women and development, with 1974 declared as Women’s Year by the UN, followed by the decade for women (1975 – 1985). The First World Conference on women (Mexico 1975) drew attention to the need for bringing women into the development sector; by 1985 global discourse recorded a shift from women in development (WID) to gender and development (GAD). In Pakistan the notion of gender entered the development discourse by mid 1980s, and a proliferation of gender training took place. By 1995, when the Fourth World Conference on women took place in Beijing, gender training was well established in Pakistan, and a loose network of gender trainers was also established. . As gender trainings took place in different NGOs, a sense of having hit a plateau began to be felt by some gender trainers. There was no evidence available to gauge the impact of gender training or ascertain whether new depths are being explored. Furthermore, gender training appeared to have become de-politicized. This paper shares the findings of a scoping review undertaken to understand the scope (focus, depth and nature) of literature on gender trainings in Pakistan, and to highlight the gaps in training. The paper also discusses the efforts of an informal network of gender trainers that tried to extend the agenda of gender trainings and how these need to be incorporated in the gender agenda for a more holistic approach. A way forward is also identified in the paper

GENDER TRAINING IN PAKISTAN: AN ANALYSIS FOR WAY FORWARD

The decade of 1970s focused on women and development, with 1974 declared as Women’s Year by the UN, followed by the decade for women (1975 – 1985). The First World Conference on women (Mexico 1975) drew attention to the need for bringing women into the development sector; by 1985 global discourse recorded a shift from women in development (WID) to gender and development (GAD). In Pakistan the notion of gender entered the development discourse by mid 1980s, and a proliferation of gender training took place. By 1995, when the Fourth World Conference on women took place in Beijing, gender training was well established in Pakistan, and a loose network of gender trainers was also established. . As gender trainings took place in different NGOs, a sense of having hit a plateau began to be felt by some gender trainers. There was no evidence available to gauge the impact of gender training or ascertain whether new depths are being explored. Furthermore, gender training appeared to have become de-politicized. This paper shares the findings of a scoping review undertaken to understand the scope (focus, depth and nature) of literature on gender trainings in Pakistan, and to highlight the gaps in training. The paper also discusses the efforts of an informal network of gender trainers that tried to extend the agenda of gender trainings and how these need to be incorporated in the gender agenda for a more holistic approach. A way forward is also identified in the paper

Missing Dimensions in Addressing Child Malnutrition in Pakistan: Lessons from the Tawana Experience

This article uses the Tawana Pakistan Project (TPP) as a case study of how to promote self?sustaining improvements in nutrition status. The programme used a participatory approach to mobilisation around malnutrition, had a transparent information system for monitoring resources, and brought a focus on deeper structural issues to the analysis of malnutrition. We argue that Tawana was cancelled because it did not provide sufficient opportunities for leakage and diversion. This amply illustrates the political nature of nutrition. Yet efforts to reduce malnutrition continue to focus primarily on technical fixes. For long?term change researchers and programme implementers will need to understand the political space they operate within. Tawana was not perfect but it offered a glimpse of a different way forward, one that struck a balance between inclusiveness and action; transparency and accountability; and health and social science perspectives. It affected politics and was undone by them. It is not too late to include these concepts and approaches in future nutrition policies and interventions

Designing EthAKUL: A mobile just-in-time learning environment for bioethics in Pakistan

In developing countries such as Pakistan, bioethics has not been included in mainstream thinking in medical education. The authors’ experiences suggest that current methods of teaching bioethics are problematic as students are unable to translate theory to practice. Alternative pedagogies, such as just-in-time learning (JiTL) using mobile devices, may be able to foster the development and implementation of ethical reasoning among nurses, doctors, and medical and nursing students. This research was conceived to determine the effectiveness of mobile JiTL – anytime, anyplace learning through mobile devices – for teaching bioethics. After obtaining ethical clearance, a participatory design (PD) approach was adopted to ensure input from all stakeholders for the design of ‘EthAKUL’, comprising a mobile app, five modules and just-in-time pedagogy. The name of the app is an acronym evoking ethics, learning and the university where the project originated. As a part of the design process, three PD workshops were held with junior doctors, nurses, nursing students, medical students and bioethics teaching faculty, and five meetings were held with faculty members, to discuss functional specifications and user-acceptance testing of the app. The feedback related to the nature of common ethical issues encountered in clinical settings, the existing process of teaching and learning bioethics, and the requested features of the app were recorded. These data sets were analyzed and synthesized into functional and technical specifications for the mobile app. The software programmers developed the app with the close involvement of the stakeholders. The development of teaching content continued alongside this process. While this enabled EthAKUL’s developers to incorporate needs of all stakeholders, challenges were encountered in the process relating to the pragmatic and conceptual aspects of JiTL, ML and PD. We discuss the implications of this research in bringing about transformative changes in higher education

Ethics and Health Professions Education

Overview Health professions education strives to promote best practices of healthcare among healthcare professionals at various levels of health services. Health care education aims to provide knowledge, skills, and competencies that are necessary for quality in care. However, quality care is not only dependent on knowledge, skills and competencies, as absence of ethical considerations impact quality of care. Therefore, it is imperative for health professionals to be well informed of the ethical considerations that affect health care. Given the importance of role and place of ethics in all human interactions, this workshop aims to outline the relationship between ethics and health care, and the ethical consideration in the relationship between the patient and providers. It will facilitate a collective exploration of how health professionals’ education could be strengthened by ethics. Methodology: In addition to a didactic portion which will highlight the ethical principles and dilemmas relevant to health professions education, this workshop will offer an opportunity for the participants to develop a module/s on integration of ethics in health education. Objectives By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to Identify key features of importance of ethics in health professions education Identify their own ethical code Integrate ethics teaching into health professions educatio

Social and societal context of women’s mental health, what women want, what they get: gap analysis in Pakistan of mental health services, polices and research

Introduction: The burden of mental illness is increasing in Pakistan as political instability, violence and terrorism beset the country. Mental health in Pakistan can be examined from three perspectives—services, research and policy. Services are provided in major public sector hospitals and some private institutions. Trained health professionals including psychiatrists and clinical psychologists are limited, and people often access faith healers for mental illnesses. Research on mental health is also being conducted, the focus being on the clinical aspects of mental health. Public health initiatives in Pakistan are yet to develop disease prevention and health promotion programmes. Intervention studies on the social context of women’s mental health are scarce. There is a mental health policy and a mental health Ordinance, Pakistan’s National health policy documents do not integrate mental health as a priority area. Women’s mental health, in contrast, is well recognized as an issue, but no national or provincial programme is to be found. Main Body: This chapter has two reviews—one, the mental health services in Pakistan, and two, the nature of research on mental health in Pakistan. It also includes what urban and rural women at community level have said about mental health. Women’s voices have been taken from two community-based research initiatives in three sites in Sindh and Baluchistan. What women say about mental health is juxtaposed with the services offered and research priorities in Pakistan. The three areas of services, research and women’s account of their needs are examined, and way forward is proposed. Discussion: The analysis of policies, mental health services and research helps identify the possible consonance between what women want and what is available. Gaps between what women want and what they get are highlighted and further analysed for identifying policy entry points, need for human resource development and research agenda for mental health. Based on this analysis a framework for advancing mental health of women is developed and recommendations prepared for improvement in women’s mental health in Pakistan. Implications: The importance of listening to women’s understanding of their mental health needs serious consideration by researchers and health providers. Researchers could pay more attention to searching for research methods that allow for expansion of women’s voices to deal with the stressors they carry. Response: Two Urdu poets have written poems after reading the chapter