MSH at Women Deliver 2023
MSH at Women Deliver 2023
More than 6,000 representatives from grassroots advocacy organizations, governments, civil society organizations, the private sector, youth organizations, and attended the Women Deliver 2023 (WD2023) conference, from July 17-20, in Kigali, Rwanda.
With sexual and reproductive health and rights at its core, WD2023 addressed compounding issues impacting girls and women worldwide—from climate change to gender-based violence to unpaid care work—empowering attendees to collective action to advance gender equality, hold leaders accountable, reframe who leads, and reinvigorate the feminist movement.
Addressing this year’s conference theme, “Spaces, Solidarity, and Solutions,” our delegation shared strategies for how to strengthen health systems to provide socially and culturally responsive person-centered care, co-designed with women and health care providers.
MSH Side Event
Women and Girls at the Center of Health Systems: Designing Person-Centered Strategies
- Tuesday, July 18
- 5:30–7:00 pm (CAT)
- Location: Ubumwe Grande Hotel, Room Gasabo, KN 67 Street, Kigali, Rwanda
Centering the needs of women and girls within health systems has the potential to shift power structures, improve the quality of care, and ensure services are culturally and socially responsive. MSH and partners hosted an evening reception where speakers shared stories of their impactful work strengthening and reorienting health systems to provide person-centered care, co-designed with women and health care providers. From co-creating group antenatal care with indigenous women in Guatemala and first-time parents in urban slums of Bangladesh to engaging parents and caregivers to care for their newborns in the health facility and at home in rural Madagascar, these approaches incorporate self-care, culturally appropriate rituals, peer support, and are based on a foundation of human rights, respect, dignity, and accountability.
Speakers:
Marian W. Wentworth
Marian W. Wentworth is President and Chief Executive Officer of MSH. Since 2017, Wentworth has helped MSH make sustainable systemic improvements in some of the globe’s most challenging environments. This includes leveraging decades of MSH’s experience in pharmaceutical and health systems strengthening, which fosters equitable access to quality health services and improves health outcomes for women, children, and adolescents. Before MSH, Wentworth managed global strategy for marketing, manufacturing, and research at MSD/Merck for 27 years. A champion of women’s and adolescent’s health, she led the global sales and marketing launch of the first cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil, and managed a portfolio of adult vaccines. Wentworth serves on the Value of Vaccination Research Network Steering Committee and WHO’s Product Development for Vaccines Advisory Committee. She is also a visiting scholar at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health and co-chairs the Dean’s Advisory Council. Her board commitments include Board Chair of Kenyan supply chain company, MedSource, and Board Director at Pharma Jet. Wentworth has a B.A. in Mathematics from Harvard University.
Anjuman Ara Begum
Anjuman Ara Begum, Senior Technical Advisor for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health at MSH, provides technical support to the Healthy Women, Healthy Families project. Before joining MSH, Begum was a technical advisor for quality improvement under USAID’s MaMoni Maternal and Newborn Care Strengthening Project through Save the Children. She has over 16 years of experience in public health with a focus on urban primary health care and research. Begum has a medical degree with specialization in reproductive health.
Mónica Berger-González
Mónica Berger-González is Head of the Unit of Medical Anthropology at the Center for Health Studies in Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and associate researcher at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Basel, Switzerland). Berger-González is a sociocultural anthropologist with a PhD in Sciences from the ETH Zurich and has two decades of experience leading international research projects involving diverse societal actors at the interface of health, climate adaptation, and income generation in vulnerable populations.
Amy Boldosser-Boesch
Amy Boldosser-Boesch is a global health leader with over 20 years’ experience in global and US health policy and advocacy, focusing on women’s and adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights and universal health coverage. She is currently Senior Director for Health Policy, Advocacy, and Engagement, and Integrated Health Care at MSH, Board Member of the Global Health Council, and serves on the UNFPA Global Advisory Council. Boldosser-Boesch holds a Master of International Affairs in Human Rights from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Dr. Bonaventure Nzeyimana
Dr. Bonaventure Nzeyimana holds an MPH in Health Systems Management and has more than 20 years of professional experience in health quality improvement and health services accreditation in Rwanda, Malawi, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Madagascar. He is currently a Principal Technical Advisor for Quality Improvement with MSH in the USAID-supported ACCESS program in Madagascar, where he leads a team of professionals aiming to reduce maternal mortality. Dr. Nzeyimana has extensive experience improving health systems at strategic and operational levels.
Shafia Rashid
Shafia Rashid, a Principal Technical Advisor at MSH, has more than 18 years of experience in global health, with a focus on advocacy and policy, spanning multiple countries in Africa and Asia. Rashid provides technical support to MSH projects in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Uganda, implementing group antenatal care. She has also led the GFF-funded COVID-19 Response Small Grants Mechanism, leveraging her extensive experience providing technical assistance to civil society organizations, as well as overseeing the development of communications platforms, technical publications, and advocacy briefs.
MSH-Moderated Panel
Universal Health Coverage for Gender Equality: Lessons from Civil Society and Communities
- Tuesday, July 18
- 9:30–11:00 am (CAT)
- Location: Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD10.2
- Organized in partnership with: Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) for UHC2030, Success Capital Organization, NCD Alliance, United for Global Mental Health
MSH and the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) for UHC2030 hosted an engaging discussion with advocates, health care professionals, and government representatives on gender-related barriers to accessing quality health care and opportunities for advancing gender equity within universal health coverage (UHC), including at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC in September 2023. Panelists shared key findings and community experiences from consultations in 43 countries for the State of UHC Commitment Review. These consultations provided insights into the state of UHC—including for women, transgender women, non-binary, and sexual and gender minorities—beyond reported indicators. Moderated by MSH’s Amy Boldosser-Boesch.
Speakers:
- Amy Boldosser-Boesch, Senior Director for Health Policy, Advocacy, and Engagement, and Integrated Health Care, MSH
- Yamikani Chimwaza, President, Women in Global Health Malawi
- Dumiso Gatsha, Founder, Success Capital, Botswana; CSEM Advisory Group Member
- Maud Mwakasungula, Executive Director, Women’s Coalition Against Cancer, Malawi
- Angie Tarr Nyakoon, Director of Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Liberia
- Samanthi Wijetunga, Community Health and Mental Health Worker, Consumer Action Network Mental Health Lanka, Sri Lanka
Where else to find us:
Gender Responsive Health Systems for UHC: Making It Happen
- Wednesday, July 19
- 7:30–8:30 am (CAT)
- Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD 12.1
Join MSH’s Amy Boldosser-Boesch, who will serve as Keynote Speaker.
The Alliance for Gender Equality and UHC, along with UHC2030, is preparing a brief on gender-responsive health systems that will provide a powerful advocacy resource for civil society organizations and communities to urge their governments to take action and hold them accountable.
Seeking to further identify what works in making health systems gender-responsive, Women in Global Health (WGH), as a co-convenor of the Alliance for Gender Equality and UHC and UHC2030, held an in-person multi-stakeholder consultation during the Women Deliver Conference 2023.
Resources
Browse our top 20 tools and resources on women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health.
Capabilities and Experience in Maternal and Child Health and Family Planning
Implementing Systemic Capacity-Building Approaches to Improve the Delivery of Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care in Malawi
Infographic: Together for Everyone’s Health – Results from USAID ONSE Health Activity in Malawi
Addressing Malaria in Pregnancy in Malawi: Community-Based Delivery of IPTp
Increasing Indigenous Women’s Use of Antenatal Care by Engaging Communities
Healthy Mothers and Babies in Guatemala (Utz’ Na’n) Factsheet
![[An Afghan nurse washes her hands before taking care of patients in Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, Kabul Afghanistan. Photo Credit: Jawad Jalali]](https://msh.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/8_afghanistan_ipc_817px.webp)
Call to Action: Expanding Access to Medicines
Forecasting Consumption of Select Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Medical Products
Improving Access to Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Medical Products in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Considerations for Effective Registration Systems
Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health & Pharmaceutical Systems Strengthening Microlearning Course
Engaging Civil Society in Social Accountability to Improve Access to and Appropriate Use of Quality Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health-Related Medical Products: A Discussion Paper
Uganda SSCS Impact Story—July 2024: Improved Tracking, Tracing, and Visibility of Commodities in Hard-to-Reach Health Facilities Using an Integrated Solar-Powered System
Uganda SSCS Impact Story—June 2024: Domestic Resource Mobilization and Financing for Health Commodities in Uganda
Uganda SSCS Impact Story—May 2024: Quantification as a Driver towards Improved Availability of Health Commodities in Uganda
Related Projects
The Accessible Continuum of Care and Essential Services Sustained Program
Healthy Mothers and Babies in Guatemala (Utz’ Na’n)
Assistance for Families and Indigent Afghans to Thrive (AFIAT)
Organized Network of Services for Everyone’s Health Activity
Strengthening TB and HIV & AIDS Responses in Eastern Uganda Project
Healthy Women, Healthy Families (Shustha Ma, Shustha Poribar)
