Crosscutting Issues
In seeking to promote an enabling environment for health, the USAID | Health Policy Initiative is mandated to devise appropriate policies and practices to address barriers to health service scale-up, access, quality, and use posed by three crosscutting issues: poverty, gender inequality, and lack of human rights. The initiative works with government, civil society, and private sector entities to design and implement policy responses that will:
- Ensure equitable access for the poor and reach those most in need with services;
- Address gender inequalities to enable women and girls and men and boys to obtain and use the information and services they need for better health; and
- Protect human rights-especially as they pertain to the rights of women and the poor as well as reduction of HIV-related stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and others affected by the epidemic.
East Africa Regional Manager Angeline Siparo, speaks during the opening of a regional African workshop for religious leaders on gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. Credt: Britt Herstad, USAID | Health Policy Initiative TO1