Blog

Overcoming Gender Barriers: A Day in the Life of a Health Worker in the Supply Chain

El Salvador’s Ministry of Health has 111 warehouses nationwide, and only two are directed by women. Yesenia Aguirre de Barahona is one of those two women, working as a warehouse guard in the Paracentral Region. Her warehouse supplies medicines to 73 health centers that serve a total of 882,243 people.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, she gained 23 years of experience working in the supply chain of the country’s health system, and spent seven years as a guard of medication warehouses. Even though she is highly experienced, she faces some challenges due to being a woman in a role typically held by men. Read more »

On the Rocky Road to Universal Health Coverage

This post originally appeared on the Global Health Council blog.

Pape GayeIf you look at the regions of the world that have made the greatest progress in family planning—India and Bangladesh come to mind—you will see that all of their strategies have included strong community health workforces. That’s because the role of the health worker is crucial.

We in the field of global health know that we have unfinished business when it comes to family planning. Globally, the use of modern contraception rose sluggishly between 1990 and 2012, from 54% to 57% over 22 years. Today 800 women will die due to causes related to pregnancy or childbirth, partly because they do not yet have access to or freedom to use the family planning methods they want and need. The number of children under five who will die is much higher—29,000 every day, mostly due to preventable causes. Read more »

Life after 2015: Keep Mental Health in Mind

Crystal NgI could use a vacation.

Don’t worry, boss! I’m not overly stressed, but everyone can benefit from an occasional break. In fact, many countries mandate that workers receive a minimum number of vacation days per year. The idea is that time off can contribute to maintaining or even improving worker productivity and satisfaction. Yet a recent Atlantic piece points out that mandatory vacation time does not necessarily correspond to workers’ satisfaction. Read more »

Syndicate content