A Guide to Gender and Malaria Resources

This guide, published by Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership and Kvinnoforum, provides information on how gendered biological and social differences affect women both as malaria sufferers and as principal caregivers. This publication was produced as a result of the October 2005 consultative meeting of the organisations authoring the book and Femmes Africa Solidarite with the research network Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Research. As a result of the first edition of this book, in March of 2006 global actors on gender and malaria met to create a framework for action and global network of 50 organisations including non-governmental, research, and grassroots organisations and independent activists. Those contacts are available in the resource section at the end of the 2006 version of this guide.

The guide contains both an explanation of the disease malaria and an introduction to gender focusing on gender and poverty, especially in the context of broadening the definition of poverty beyond economic poverty. In the discussion on gender and health issues that follows, the guide indicates a lack of research that separates male statistics from female and research focusing on gender differences such as the reproductive period of women and the affects of war on men. It contains a special section on the sexual and reproductive health care and rights of women.

Malaria is presented from a gender perspective including patterns of exposure resulting from occupation and role in the family, malaria problems specific to pregnancy, and malaria and HIV/AIDS. In each of these subsections, gender plays a uniquely identifiable role in women’s' exposure to malaria and its consequences. For example, the responsibility of cooking outdoors morning and evening increases exposure. The likelihood of malaria-related anaemia in pregnancy increase the death rate, especially in adolescent girls. The presence of both HIV/AIDS and malaria decreases the effectiveness of medications for both diseases.

Beyond biology, women are vulnerable as a result of the influence of gender roles in communities and families and as a result of physical vulnerability during pregnancy. The guide analyses the consequences of who makes decisions about whether and when to take sick family members to clinics or traditional healers, who pays, and what barriers face women in making effective choices. It discusses the caregiver role and cites a study showing that 64% of the work of an infected family member, as well as the care of that person, generally fall to women.

This analysis of gender and malaria is followed by a chapter of recommendations and identified gaps in three areas: policy, research, and implementation. The final chapter has three sections. The first is a global gender and malaria analysis matrix. The second is contact information and roles of the 50 members of the network alliance. The final section is a bibliography of references on the topic.