Women in Global Health Finland

Women in Global Health Finland is a network of like minded global health professionals from different sectors; academia, private, and government. Our goal is to bring together global health professionals through a grass-roots movement.

Women in Global Health Finland is led by Ann Spitalny Bacon, Miia Halonen, and Elsi Haverinen-Mottaghi. The chapter is hosted by Tampere University and supported by the chapter’s Gender Equality Advisor, Lynda Gilby. The chapter was founded by Professor Salla Atkins and Dr Jennifer Martin.

 

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WGH Finland supports women’s advancement and equal representation in global health through various efforts. This includes the Professional Journey Speaker Series, where women are invited to talk about their career journeys, offer advice, and answer questions to chapter members, particularly early career professionals. The chapter also collaborated with the Global Health Mentorship program to facilitate the engagement between chapter members and experienced professionals. As the chapter’s Gender Equality Advisor, Lynda Gilby is completing a Doctoral degree at Tampere University, looking at the challenges to SRHR in international forums, focusing on the opposition at the UN and EU institutions. This research aims to provide timely information to stakeholders on the opposition tactics to SRHR and gender equality more broadly to bring together allies to work on strategies to counter the opposition.

To contribute to strengthening a gender-sensitive response to COVID-19, Women in Global Health Finland created the COVID-19 Task Force that aimed to address fundamental gender inequities in global health security. In 2020, they published a report on the challenges to accessing sexual and reproductive health services during the pandemic. This was later presented at the International Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. You can access the report below. 

REPORT – COVID-19 Task Force Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights Under Threat

 

Sexual and Reproductive Rights Hub

There has been an increasing opposition to gender equality globally, including SRHR.  In order to protect and advance gender equality, we need to identify what opposition and other challenges to achieving gender equality are taking place, and work together with stakeholders to develop strategies to overcome these. As such, WGH Finland will establish a SRHR hub to develop a global network of researchers, CSO’s and policymakers who can work together to share knowledge and create solutions that will have real impact at the ground level.  As an established university already conducting research on this topic, Tampere University makes a suitable host for a research hub on SRHR.

 

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