As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ commitment to its Data for Health initiative, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has received $3.6 million in renewed funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies to expand gender equity work. The two-year grant will support the Bloomberg School of Public Health in its work on Data for Health, creating a global health data ecosystem that counts and values the lives and experiences of all people.
Launched in 2021, the Gender Equity Unit leads a range of research and practice activities including providing free technical assistance to Data for Health affiliates for data collection and policy application; tracking country progress towards key gender indicators; and building country partner capacity to integrate gender equity work through training sessions, webinars, and mentorship.
Data for Health works with governments to strengthen and standardize birth and death records and to better inform policymaking and improve public health outcomes. Data for Health focuses on civil registries and vital statistics systems, and data impact, as well as non-communicable disease risk factor surveillance and strengthening cancer registries. It has forged a global partnership that includes the CDC Foundation, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Global Health Advocacy Incubator, United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Africa, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Vital Strategies, and the World Health Organization.
“We are extremely grateful to Bloomberg Philanthropies for their strong commitment to our work of promoting gender equity in public health data and research,” says Michelle R. Kaufman, PhD, the Gender Equity Unit’s principal investigator. She is an associate professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Bloomberg School with a joint appointment in the Department of International Health. “We want to ensure that health data represents all people so that equitable health policies and programs can follow.”
The Gender Equity Unit will use the renewed funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies to strengthen the integration of gender in birth/death registration/certification; integrate the gender content into training programs and operational modules under civil registration and vital statistics; and review research protocols and tools focused on gender diverse individuals' experiences.
The Unit recently launched a free online course on Coursera, ‘Gender Foundations in Health Data,’ which offers five hours of learning time, taught by Unit instructors, and certificates upon completion.
“After being founded in 2021, also with Data for Health funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Gender Equity Unit is ready to expand our role as a knowledge center and resource hub for partners and countries in the Data for Health Initiative to integrate gender equity in their work,” says Kaufman. “My team will also explore new areas for technical assistance and conduct new research studies to inform in-country efforts to advance gender equity in public health data.”
