Data for: Synthesis of Findings from the Literature and a Qualitative Research Study on the Impacts of Gender, Disability, and Ethnicity in Neglected Tropical Diseases Programs

<h3>Project Overview</h3><p>The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Act to End Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) | West (Act | West) program is a five-year USAID-funded cooperative agreement that seeks to eliminate or control five NTDs (lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths) in 11 West African countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leona and Togo. The program – managed as a consortium of partners, with FHI 360 as the overall lead – supports national governments to roll out mass drug administration (MDA) campaigns to treat all eligible individuals in an affected community with drugs that both treat the disease in those who are infected, as well as protect those who aren’t from future infection. These campaigns are primarily carried out by community drug distributors (CDDs) who are trained by government health teams to raise awareness of NTDs and the drugs used to treat them, as well as ensure all eligible individuals participate in the MDA campaigns.</p><p>As a way to ensure the program is equitably addressing the needs of men, women, boys and girls with NTD control and elimination activities, Act | West conducted a gender and social inclusion (GESI) analysis study in 2019 to determine how NTDs differentially impact various populations and how gender and social norms and power differentials between men and women might impact results, with a view to informing future NTD programming, integrating elements to explicitly advance gender equality and social inclusion. The GESI analysis took an intersectional approach, looking not just at how gender norms and roles impact various components of NTD programming, but also looking at ethnicity, geographic context, urban vs. rural, and disability.</p><p>The objectives of the gender and social inclusion analysis were to identify the following:<ul><li>How neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) might differentially impact women, men, and school-aged children 6-15 years old, recognizing intersectionality such as disability, ethnicity, etc.;</li><li>How gender norms, roles, and power dynamics, including social exclusion of people with disabilities, might affect the attainment of program results; and</li><li>How program activities might advance gender equality and social inclusion and promote sustainable health outcomes in the context of NTD control and elimination programming.</li></ul></p>