Awards

Lilian Okeke of the African Field Epidemiology Network in Uganda will develop a health index as a comprehensive, integrated measure of women’s health in Nigeria. The index will be based on existing datasets, including Nigeria’s Demographic and Health Surveys and its Health Management Information System as well as World Bank gender data, with new data collection to fill gaps where feasible. Health outcomes across women’s life course will be stratified by geography, socioeconomic status, and gendered barriers. The index will integrate factors such as education, employment, social protection, and gender-based violence; and data modeling and statistical methods will be incorporated to reveal hidden inequities. The index will be piloted in two Nigerian states, testing its ability to generate actionable evidence to guide health policy, resource allocation, and targeted interventions for more equitable women’s health outcomes.

Getachew Tilahun of Haramaya University in Ethiopia will develop a health index as a comprehensive, integrated measure of women’s health in Ethiopia. Health indicators will be developed that incorporate the sociocultural and economic context of women across their life course. Based on data from Ethiopia’s Demographic and Health Surveys, these indicators will be used to create a series of health indices, each specific for an age group. New data covering mental health will be integrated by adding questions to the household surveys conducted regularly under Ethiopia’s Health and Demographic Surveillance System. The age-specific indices will be aggregated into a composite index, spanning early childhood to late adulthood. Data modeling will be used to predict the effects on the women’s health index of changes over time in climate, land use, health policy, and health interventions.

Katherine Rucinski of Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. will develop a platform for understanding the determinants of women’s heath inequities in South Africa and for modeling the effects of health interventions. The project will be implemented through collaboration with the Pan African Centre for Epidemics Research, which is part of the University of Johannesburg and the South African Medical Research Council. Machine learning will be applied to datasets publicly available in South Africa to identify the factors underlying the co-occurrence of chronic health conditions that disproportionally affect women. Data modeling will then be performed to identify interventions that most efficiently and effectively reduce these health disparities. This approach will be integrated into a web-based simulation tool for epidemiological modeling of women’s health across diverse contexts.

Anne Yonkeu of the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Cameroon will develop a health index as a comprehensive, integrated measure of women’s health in Cameroon. Using existing national data sources that reflect the multidimensional determinants of women’s health, health indicators will be developed and integrated into a composite index. These determinants will include factors such as reproductive health, gender-based violence, unpaid care work, nutrition, and access to services. Data modeling and statistical methods including geospatial analysis will be incorporated so that the index can serve as a digital tool for revealing and visualizing hidden inequities in women’s health at the subnational level and strengthening gender-sensitive health monitoring. The tool will be piloted, testing its ability to generate actionable evidence at the national and subnational levels to guide health policy, resource allocation, and targeted interventions for more equitable women’s health outcomes.

Alphonsus Neba of the African Population and Health Research Center in Kenya will develop a health index as a comprehensive, integrated measure of women’s health. Using existing global and regional data sources that reflect the multidimensional determinants of women’s health, life stage-specific health indicators will be developed and integrated into a composite index. These determinants will include factors such as unpaid care work, gender-based violence, access to services, reproductive autonomy, and mental health. Data modeling and statistical methods including geospatial analysis will be incorporated so that the index can serve as a digital tool to reveal and visualize hidden inequities in women’s health at the subnational level. The tool will be piloted in Kenya, Brazil, and India, testing its ability to generate actionable evidence to guide health policy, resource allocation, and targeted interventions for more equitable women’s health outcomes.

Qudsia Uzma of the World Health Organization in Pakistan will develop a health index as a comprehensive, integrated measure of women’s health in Pakistan. In collaboration with Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning Development & Special Initiatives, relevant existing data sources will be used to develop indicators that incorporate the sociocultural and economic context of women’s health across their life course. The indicators will reflect the intersection of diverse factors underlying inequities in women’s health and wellbeing, including communicable and non-communicable diseases, nutrition, education, empowerment, mental health, poverty, climate vulnerability, autonomy and personal rights, access to services, and gender-based violence. The indicators and the degree to which they each improve or worsen annually will be integrated into a composite index to guide health policy, resource allocation, and targeted interventions for more equitable women’s health outcomes.

Muzungu Sylvain of the Ministry of Health in Rwanda will develop a health index as a comprehensive, integrated measure of women’s health in Rwanda. The index will be based on Rwanda’s National Health Intelligence Center that consolidates real-time and historical data from electronic medical records of all health facilities, the District Health Information System, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics, national surveys, and social protection databases. It will integrate factors encompassing the gendered burden of disease and health conditions, sexual and reproductive health, as well as economic and social determinants of health. The index will inform the design of equitable benefit packages under Rwanda’s Community-Based Health Insurance system and guide gender-sensitive strategies to improve women's health and wellbeing.