Ottawa: Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health, and Marci Ien, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, has officially launched the National Women’s Health Research Initiative (NWHRI), which is supported by an investment of $20 million over five years provided in Budget 2021.
This initiative will confront persistent inequities in Canada’s health research community and health system. It will drive research to enhance health outcomes, eliminate gaps in access to care, and improve the quality of care for women, trans women, girls, and gender-diverse communities.
The NWHRI is being delivered through a partnership between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE). As a first step, CIHR and WAGE are investing in a Pan-Canadian Women’s Health Coalition. The Coalition will be composed of Canadian non-governmental organizations such as community organizations and regional health authorities, health care professionals, early career researchers and trainees, as well as Indigenous, Black, and racialized women, women with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, and people with lived and living experience of navigating health issues affecting women, trans women, girls, and gender-diverse communities.
This inclusive and intersectional approach will provide critical insights and guide actions to tackle persistent gaps in health status and health care delivery and improve the health of the diversity of women in this country.
The Coalition will leverage the strengths of researchers across Canada. It will also benefit from the work that CIHR’s Institute of Gender and Health has done to build capacity for research on sex and gender and to implement GBA+ policies in research and health policy.
Jean-Yves Duclos said: “This national initiative will help improve health care in Canada by addressing gaps in access to care that continue to exist for women, trans women, girls, and gender diverse communities.”
Marci Ien said: “We first need to understand the barriers they face. Today’s investment gives the Government of Canada, and governments at every level, more data to craft inclusive and intersectional policies. Projects like this champion gender equality by improving women’s health care across Canada.”
Dr. Tammy Clifford, Vice-President, Research, Learning Health Systems, CIHR, said: “When it comes to health, sex and gender matter. Experiences differ in areas of patterns of illness, disease and mortality, interactions with the health system – and research. With this investment we can build a community of researchers and knowledge users who are integrating sex and gender in their work for broad and sustained health impact.”
