The Health Of Women In Latin America And The Caribbean

This book was prepared by World Bank in collaboration with the Chinese government and leading academics. It argues that, in order to address the growing economic, social, and political pressures of the 21st Century, China will have to build solid foundations for a knowledge-based economy by updating the economic and institutional regime, upgrading education and learning, and building information infrastructure. China must also raise the technological level of the economy by diffusing new technologies actively throughout the economy, improving the research and development sytem, and exploiting global knowledge.

This study has two main objectives: 1) to analyze trends and differences in women's health, examples of good practices in delivery and financing of women's health programs; and the key dimensions of women's health that are relevant for the health reforms currently underway in Latin America; and 2) to provide guidance for governments and program designers in addressing the most pressing causes of women's ill health, within the context of broader sectoral and national policies. The report is divided into five sections. This overview highlights the rationale for focusing on the topic of women's health, along with a conceptual framework for understanding the determinants of women's health and the role of health policy. Chapter 1 describes major trends and differentials in women's health in Latin America and the Caribbean, grouping countries into four broad categories according to trends in health, demographic, and socioeconomic indicators. Chapter 2 turns to a discussion of success, utilization, and spending on women's health, providing the results of new analyses for seven countries. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the links between women's health and health reform. It emphasizes potential synergies and opportunities to integrate women's health concerns in broader reform initiatives and points out risks to be avoided. The final chapter presents concluding remarks and recommendations.

This study has two main objectives: 1) to analyze trends and differences in women's health, examples of good practices in delivery and financing of women's health programs; and the key dimensions of women's health that are relevant for the health reforms currently underway in Latin America; and 2) to provide guidance for governments and program designers in addressing the most pressing causes of women's ill health, within the context of broader sectoral and national policies. The report is divided into five sections. This overview highlights the rationale for focusing on the topic of women's health, along with a conceptual framework for understanding the determinants of women's health and the role of health policy. Chapter 1 describes major trends and differentials in women's health in Latin America and the Caribbean, grouping countries into four broad categories according to trends in health, demographic, and socioeconomic indicators. Chapter 2 turns to a discussion of success, utilization, and spending on women's health, providing the results of new analyses for seven countries. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the links between women's health and health reform. It emphasizes potential synergies and opportunities to integrate women's health concerns in broader reform initiatives and points out risks to be avoided. The final chapter presents concluding remarks and recommendations.

Gender, Health, and Society in Contemporary Latin America and the Caribbean takes a multilayered approach to the contemporary peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx peoples in the greater diaspora. Central to this edited collection, and critical to its creative significance and contribution, is the conceptual unification of gendered health, the embodiment of identity, societal structures, and social inequality, and the ways in which gender, health, and society intersect daily. By emphasizing the complex ways in which gender and health intersect in Latin America, the contributors to this collection offer a more detailed look at how gender embodies health inequities in these populations and how societal woes impact and constrain gendered bodies in public spheres.

Over the past three decades, many countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have recognized health as a human right. Since the early 2000s, 46 million more people in the countries studied are covered by health programs with explicit guarantees of affordable care. Reforms have been accompanied by a rise in public spending for health, financed largely from general revenues that prioritized or explicitly target the population without capacity to pay. Political commitment has generally translated into larger budgets as well as passage of legislation that ring-fenced funding for health. Most countries have prioritized cost-effective primary care and adopted purchasing methods that incentivize efficiency and accountability for results, and that give stewards of the health sector greater leverage to steer providers to deliver on public health priorities. Evidence from the analysis of 54 household surveys corroborates that investments in extending coverage are yielding results. Though the poor still have worse health outcomes than the rich, disparities have narrowed considerably - particularly in the early stage of the life course. Countries have reached high levels of coverage and equity in utilization of maternal and child health services; coverage of noncommunicable disease interventions is not as high and service utilization is still skewed toward the better off. Catastrophic health expenditures have declined in most countries; the picture regarding equity, however, is mixed. While the rate of impoverishment owing to health-care expenditures is low and generally declining, 2-4 million people in the countries studied still fall below the poverty line after health spending. Efforts to systematically monitor quality of care in the region are still in their infancy. Nonetheless, a review of the literature reveals important shortcomings in quality of care, as well as substantial differences across subsystems. Improving quality of care and ensuring sustainability of investments in health remain an unfinished agenda.

Over recent decades, women in Latin America and the Caribbean have increased their labor force participation faster than in any other region of the world. This evolution occurred in the context of more general progress in women’s status. Female enrollment rates have increased at all levels of education, fertility rates have declined, and social norms have shifted toward gender equality. This report sheds light on the complex relationship between stages of economic development and female economic participation. It documents a shift in women’s perceptions whereby work has become a fundamental part of their identity, highlighting the distinction between jobs and careers. These dynamics are made more complex by the acknowledgment that individuals are part of larger economic units—families. As development progresses and the options available to women expand, the need to balance career and family takes greater importance. New tensions emerge, paradoxically made possible by decades of steady gains. Understanding the new challenges women face as they balance work and family is thus crucial for policy.

This report contributes to the design and implementation of policies that promote healthy living in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), thus effectively preventing premature mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the region. It examines the health and economic impact of NCDs in the region and the governance challenges in the design and implementation of multisectoral policies to prevent these conditions, including polices to improve diet, increase physical activity, and reduce tobacco use and alcohol abuse. The study focuses on how policy decisions involving multisectoral interventions to prevent health risk factors are taken, which stakeholders directly or indirectly participate in those decisions, which incentives they experience, and what strategies they use in these processes. This document is divided into six chapters: 1) non-communicable diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2) risk factors for NCDs in Latin America and the Caribbean, 3) economic impact of NCDs in Latin America and the Caribbean, 4) governance of multisectoral interventions to promote healthy living: international examples, 5) multisectoral interventions to promote healthy living in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 6) lessons learned and agenda for the future.

This volume represents more than just a collection of chapters and bibliographic sources. For us, it provides another example of collective solidarity, hard work, and a relentless commitment to contribute to the process of advancing and transforming knowledge about women's condition. It attempts to update and assess how scholarship on women has impacted different disciplines and fields and examines the multivariate conditions and responses to immediate and long-term realities generated by women from different LatinAmerican and Caribbean countries. The editors hope that this publication, modest as it may be, will be a useful tool to other researchers, educators, and students in their efforts at pursuing and expanding the knowledge and visions that will make our different societies more just and liberating for all their citizens.