Women RISE projects to be announced at Canadian Conference on Global Health
Women’s health and economic empowerment for a COVID-19 Recovery that is Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable (Women RISE) is a partnership between Canadian funders that will help improve the health and social and economic well-being of women by contributing to policies and interventions that advance preparedness for future health emergencies.
Women and girls around the world have disproportionately suffered from the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. Women have borne the brunt of layoffs and loss of livelihoods, sacrificed their own health at the frontlines of the pandemic response and disproportionately shouldered the burden of the additional caregiving associated with COVID-19.
To address these impacts of COVID-19, in March 2022, IDRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) launched Women RISE, a CAD24 million research initiative.
This initiative contributes to global efforts to ensure an evidence-informed and equitable recovery from COVID-19. Women RISE is aligned with priority 3.5 of the United Nations Research Roadmap for COVID-19 Recovery and is part of Canada’s commitment to gender equality, to empowering women and girls around the world and to promoting their human rights and well-being.
IDRC will announce the results of the two-stage competitive process at 11 am on November 22 during the Canadian Conference on Global Health in Toronto and introduce these collaborative action research projects between researchers from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and Canada.
The research teams will study the relationships between women’s work and health before, during and after COVID-19. The generated evidence will inform immediate and medium-term solutions for post-COVID-19 recovery that improve gender equality and health equity outcomes in LMICs and globally.
The 23 research projects supported by Women RISE involve 18 Canadian institutions in collaboration with 17 LMICs from Asia (four funded projects), Africa (14 funded projects), Latin America and the Caribbean (four funded projects) and the Middle East and North Africa (one funded project).
More specifically, researchers and decision-makers in Argentina, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uganda are collaborating with Canadian researchers and institutions in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. Of the Women RISE projects, one focuses on infectious diseases, two projects concentrate on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, and 15 projects address pandemics and other health emergencies.
Watch the announcement at the Canadian Conference on Global Health on November 22