What's the ideal World Health Organization (WHO)?

The World Health Organization (WHO) is tasked with the 'attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health', yet, it is widely struggling to meet this mandate, and COVID-19 has revealed significant limitations of the organisation. Despite clear guidance provided by the institution as to how best to respond to the pathogen, many governments departed from WHO's guidance in their response efforts. Is this a new crisis for WHO? Does WHO need to restore its legitimacy in the eyes of the global community? As renewed calls for changes to WHO emerge, in this perspective we lay out the obstacles WHO face to become the WHO 'we' need. The assumption is that UN member states need an empowered and well-funded organisation. Yet, many years of discussion of reform of WHO have failed to lead to meaningful change, and glaring challenges remain in its financing, governance and politics, which are considered in turn. The reality may be that we have the WHO that UN member states need - one that can provide guidance and advice, but also take criticism for health governance failures when states want to avoid blame or responsibility. We discuss this, by analysing three key areas of WHO'S challenges: mandate and scope; structure, governance and money and domestic vs international.

A gendered content analysis of the World Health Organization's COVID-19 guidance and policies

As with previous global public health emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic has had distinct and disproportionate impacts on women and their health and livelihoods. As the leader in global public health, it is incumbent upon the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure gender is prioritized in pandemic response. We conducted a policy analysis of 338 WHO COVID-19 documents and found that only 20% explicitly discuss gender and over half do not mention women, gender, or sex at all. Considering the well documented gendered effects of pandemics and the WHO's commitment to gender mainstreaming, this paper: 1) asks to what degree and how the WHO incorporates a gender inclusive approach;2) maps where and how gender considerations are included;and 3) analyses what this suggests about WHO's commitment to gender mainstreaming within its COVID-19 response and beyond. We demonstrate that WHO should increase its gender mainstreaming efforts and incorporate gender considerations related to health emergencies more often and in more policy areas.

SDG5 "Gender Equality" and the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid assessment of health system responses in selected upper-middle and high-income countries.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare and societies, exacerbating existing inequalities for women and girls across every sphere. Our study explores health system responses to gender equality goals during the COVID-19 pandemic and inclusion in future policies. Methods: We apply a qualitative comparative approach, drawing on secondary sources and expert information; the data was collected from March-July 2022. Australia, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the USA were selected, reflecting upper-middle and high-income countries with established public health and gender policies but different types of healthcare systems and epidemiological and geo-political conditions. Three sub-goals of SDG5 were analyzed: maternity care/reproductive health, gender-based violence, and gender equality/women's leadership. Results: We found similar trends across countries. Pandemic policies strongly cut into women's health, constrained prevention and support services, and weakened reproductive rights, while essential maternity care services were kept open. Intersecting gender inequalities were reinforced, sexual violence increased and women's leadership was weak. All healthcare systems failed to protect women's health and essential public health targets. Yet there were relevant differences in the responses to increased violence and reproductive rights, ranging from some support measures in Australia to an abortion ban in the US. Conclusions: Our study highlights a need for revising pandemic policies through a feminist lens.

The gendered dimensions of the anti-mask and anti-lockdown movement on social media.

This paper examines the anti-mask and anti-lockdown online movement in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic. To combat the spread of the coronavirus, health officials around the world urged and/or mandated citizens to wear facemasks and adopt physical distancing measures. These health policies and guidelines have become highly politicized in some parts of the world, often discussed in association with freedom of choice and independence. We downloaded references to the anti-mask and anti-lockdown social media posts using 24 search terms. From a total of 4209 social media posts, the researchers manually filtered the explicit visual and textual content that is related to discussions of different genders. We used multimodal discourse analysis (MDM) which analyzes diverse modes of communicative texts and images and focuses on appeals to emotions and reasoning. Using the MDM approach, we analysed posts taken from Facebook and Instagram from active anti-mask and anti-lockdown users, and we identified three main discourses around the gendered discussion of the anti-mask movement including hypermasculine, sexist and pejorative portrayals of "Karen", and appropriating freedom and feminism discourses. A better understanding of how social media users evoke gendered discourses to spread anti-mask and anti-lockdown messages can help researchers identify differing reactions toward pandemic measures.

Reconceptualizing successful pandemic preparedness and response: A feminist perspective.

Pandemic preparedness and COVID-19 response indicators focus on public health outcomes (such as infections, case fatalities, and vaccination rates), health system capacity, and/or the effects of the pandemic on the economy, yet this avoids more political questions regarding how responses were mobilized. Pandemic preparedness country rankings have been called into question due to their inability to predict COVID-19 response and outcomes, and COVID-19 response indicators have ignored one of the most well documented secondary effects of the pandemic - its disproportionate effects on women. This paper analyzes pandemic preparedness and response indicators from a feminist perspective to understand how indicators might consider the secondary effects of the pandemic on women and other equity deserving groups. Following a discussion of the tensions that exist between feminist methodologies and the reliance on indicators by policymakers in preparing and responding to health emergencies, we assess the strengths and weakness of current pandemic preparedness and COVID-19 response indicators. The risk with existing pandemic preparedness and response indicators is that they give only limited attention to secondary effects of pandemics and inequities in terms of who is disproportionately affected. There is an urgent need to reconceptualize what 'successful' pandemic preparedness and response entails, moving beyond epidemiological and economic measurements. We suggest how efforts to design COVID response indicators on gender inclusion could inform pandemic preparedness and associated indicators.

A gendered content analysis of the World Health Organization's COVID-19 guidance and policies.

As with previous global public health emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic has had distinct and disproportionate impacts on women and their health and livelihoods. As the leader in global public health, it is incumbent upon the World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure gender is prioritized in pandemic response. We conducted a policy analysis of 338 WHO COVID-19 documents and found that only 20% explicitly discuss gender and over half do not mention women, gender, or sex at all. Considering the well documented gendered effects of pandemics and the WHO's commitment to gender mainstreaming, this paper: 1) asks to what degree and how the WHO incorporates a gender inclusive approach; 2) maps where and how gender considerations are included; and 3) analyses what this suggests about WHO's commitment to gender mainstreaming within its COVID-19 response and beyond. We demonstrate that WHO should increase its gender mainstreaming efforts and incorporate gender considerations related to health emergencies more often and in more policy areas.

An Unequal Balance: Women's Jobs during covid-19: the Case of Panama.

This article attempts to answer the question of how women experienced the effects of the health measures including the gender-based lockdown and only being able to leave the house with an identity card adopted during covid-19 in Panama, especially as regards paid and unpaid work. The in-depth interview was used as a methodological tool, which was administered to key informants: leaders of women's, trade union and lgbti+ organizations, state officials and staff members of international organizations. Transcripts were analyzed on the basis of feminist academic bibliography together with the legislation, reports, and statistical data. It was thought that the government adopted measures that failed to consider gender inequality, which had effects on the lives of women, such as overburdening them and making work in the home and that of vulnerable women invisible. It also increased their paid workload, insecurity, and economic uncertainty. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Este artículo parte de la necesidad de responder a la pregunta de cómo vivieron las mujeres los efectos de las medidas sanitarias de confinamiento y de circulación por sexo y cédula, adoptadas en el marco de la covid-19 en la República de Panamá, sobre todo en materia de los trabajos remunerados y no remunerados. Se utilizó la entrevista a profundidad como herramienta metodológica, que fue aplicada a informantes clave: lideresas de organizaciones de mujeres, sindicales y lgbti+, funcionarias y funcionarios estatales y de organismos internacionales. Las transcripciones se analizaron con base en la bibliografía académico-feminista y, de manera complementaria, con legislación, informes y datos estadísticos. Fue generalizada la opinión de que el gobierno adoptó medidas que no consideraron la desigualdad de género, lo cual tuvo efectos en las vidas de las mujeres, tales como sobrecarga e invisibilización del trabajo en el hogar y de las mujeres vulnerables, aumento de su carga laboral remunerada, inseguridad e incertidumbre económica. (Spanish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Este artigo tenta responder à questão de como as mulheres vivenciaram os efeitos das medidas sanitárias de confinamento e circulação por sexo e carteira de identidade, adotadas no âmbito da covid-19 na República do Panamá --especialmente em matéria de pagamento e trabalho não remunerado. A ferramenta metodológica foi a entrevista em profundidade, aplicada a informantes-chave: líderes sindicais e de organizações de mulheres e lgbti+, funcionárias e funcionários do Estado e organizações internacionais. As transcrições foram analisadas atendendo à bibliografia acadêmico-feminista e, de forma complementar, à legislação, os relatórios e os dados estatísticos. A opinião generalizada foi que as medidas adotadas pelo governo foram indiferentes à desigualdade de gênero, o que repercutiu na vida das mulheres, como sobrecarregar e invisibilizar o trabalho em casa e às mulheres vulneráveis, aumentando sua renda de trabalho, insegurança e incerteza econômica. (Portuguese) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Debate Feminista is the property of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

"I Was Facilitating Everybody Else's Life. And Mine Had Just Ground to a Halt": The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Women in the United Kingdom.

A growing body of research has highlighted the disproportionately negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women globally. This article contributes to this work by interrogating the lived realities of sixty-four women in the United Kingdom through semi-structured in-depth interviews, undertaken during the first and second periods of lockdown associated with COVID-19 in 2020. Categorizing the data by subgroup of women and then by theme, this article explores the normative and policy-imposed constraints experienced by women in 2020 with regard to paid and unpaid labor, mental health, access to healthcare services, and government representation and consideration of women. These findings highlight women's varied and gendered experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes the role that government can proactively play in attending to gender inequalities throughout its COVID-19 response.

Gender and Race on the Frontline: Experiences of Health Workers in Brazil during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Studies on the differential effects of health emergencies have largely overlooked women health workers. Whilst the literature has shown the impact of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) on women and on healthcare workers, little research has considered the gendered effects of the health workforce. This article analyses the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers and working conditions in Brazil's public healthcare system, through consideration of gendered and racialized understandings of care and work. Data were taken from an online survey of 1,263 health workers, undertaken between September and October 2020, disaggregated by sex and by race in order to understand health workers' experiences of the pandemic in one of the countries most significantly affected by the crisis.

#WuhanDiary and #WuhanLockdown: gendered posting patterns and behaviours on Weibo during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social media can be both a source of information and misinformation during health emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media became a ubiquitous tool for people to communicate and represents a rich source of data researchers can use to analyse users' experiences, knowledge and sentiments. Research on social media posts during COVID-19 has identified, to date, the perpetuity of traditional gendered norms and experiences. Yet these studies are mostly based on Western social media platforms. Little is known about gendered experiences of lockdown communicated on non-Western social media platforms. Using data from Weibo, China's leading social media platform, we examine gendered user patterns and sentiment during the first wave of the pandemic between 1 January 2020 and 1 July 2020. We find that Weibo posts by self-identified women and men conformed with some gendered norms identified on other social media platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic (posting patterns and keyword usage) but not all (sentiment). This insight may be important for targeted public health messaging on social media during future health emergencies.

Governing Global Antimicrobial Resistance: 6 Key Lessons Fromthe Paris Climate Agreement

[...]mitigating the threat posed by AMR requires a recognition of how embedded social structures and incentives drive antimicrobial use across sectors. [...]escalating commitments through national AMR action plans, which outline each country's AMR goals and planned actions, will likely increase the effectiveness of global AMR efforts. Fifth, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change guiding the Paris Agreement, ongoing AMR action would be best informed by a regular and independent stock-taking to evaluate existing measures and advise on evidence-informed adjustments.11,12 This endeavor must (1) recognize that different ways of knowing constitute the global knowledge base, (2) ensure that using evidence to inform adjustments that work does not detract from the inherently political questions of works for what purpose and for whose benefit, and (3) come with a commitment to equitable evidence generation and prioritization. Striking a panel to assess the global knowledge base on these terms will ensure that global, regional, and national goals and policies are continually informed by the best available evidence and are in line with leading practices.12 Finally, an enduring international legal agreement could institutionalize requires new legal mechanisms beyond those available through the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the United Nations Environment Program, which are limited to the area-specific mandates of each institution.

Investigating Public Discourses Around Gender and COVID-19: a Social Media Analysis of Twitter Data.

We collected over 50 million tweets referencing COVID-19 to understand the public's gendered discourses and concerns during the pandemic. We filtered the tweets based on English language and among three gender categories: men, women, and sexual and gender minorities. We used a mixed-method approach that included topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and text mining extraction procedures including words' mapping, proximity plots, top hashtags and mentions, and most retweeted posts. Our findings show stark differences among the different genders. In relation to women, we found a salient discussion on the risks of domestic violence due to the lockdown especially towards women and girls, while emphasizing financial challenges. The public discourses around SGM mostly revolved around blood donation concerns, which is a reminder of the discrimination against some of these communities during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Finally, the discourses around men were focused on the high death rates and the sentiment analysis results showed more negative tweets than among the other genders. The study concludes that Twitter influencers can drive major online discussions which can be useful in addressing communication needs during pandemics.

The UN Security Council and gender in health emergencies: what comes next?

Operative paragraph 7 of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2532 (2020) acknowledges ‘the critical role that women are playing in the COVID-19 response efforts’, the ‘disproportionate negative impact the pandemic is having on women and girls’, and ‘calls for concrete actions to minimise this impact and ensure the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and youth in the development and implementation of an adequate and sustainable response to the pandemic’. This Resolution is clear in its language: states must recognise and respond to the gendered effects of the pandemic. The adoption of Resolution 2532 and subsequently 2565 (2021) is an important opportunity to further integrate health emergencies and UNSC’s Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. The language is deliberate: it offers global health a set of mechanisms on how to integrate gender into complex crises and, in turn, offers WPS a chance to engage with health and pandemics as a security challenge for women and girls. However, as previous health emergencies and the WPS agenda show us, Resolutions are not a panacea: they are political compromises often riddled with contradictions and are dependent on states and the international community to implement them.

Using gender analysis matrixes to integrate a gender lens into infectious diseases outbreaks research.

Evidence shows that infectious disease outbreaks are not gender-neutral, meaning that women, men and gender minorities are differentially affected. This evidence affirms the need to better incorporate a gender lens into infectious disease outbreaks. Despite this evidence, there has been a historic neglect of gender-based analysis in health, including during health crises. Recognizing the lack of available evidence on gender and pandemics in early 2020 the Gender and COVID-19 project set out to use a gender analysis matrix to conduct rapid, real-time analyses while the pandemic was unfolding to examine the gendered effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This paper reports on what a gender analysis matrix is, how it can be used to systematically conduct a gender analysis, how it was implemented within the study, ways in which the findings from the matrix were applied and built upon, and challenges encountered when using the matrix methodology.