title: Investing in nursing and midwifery enterprise: Empowering women and strengthening health systems--A landscaping study of innovations in low- and middle-income countries.
abstract: Women's empowerment and global health promotion are both central aims in the development agenda, with positive associations and feedback loops between empowerment and health outcomes. To date, most of the work exploring connections between health and empowerment has focused on women as health consumers. This article summarizes a much longer landscape review that examines ways in which various health programs can empower women as providers, specifically nurses and midwives. We conducted a scan of the Center for Health Market Innovations database to identify how innovative health programs can create empowerment opportunities for nurses and midwives. We reviewed 94 programs, exploring nurses' and midwives' roles and inputs that contribute to their empowerment. There were four salient models: provider training, information and communications technologies, cooperatives, and clinical franchises. By documenting these approaches and their hallmarks for empowering female health workers, we hope to stimulate greater uptake of health innovations coupled with gender-empowerment opportunities globally. The full report with expanded methodology and findings is available online.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Berman Institute of Bioethics, Baltimore, MD. Electronic address: Ckrubiner@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Carleigh B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Krubiner
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Evans School of Public Affairs, Seattle, WA.
authors.forename: Marla
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.affiliation: Results for Development Institute, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Synowiec
authors.affiliation: Results for Development Institute, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lagomarsino
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D006801:Humans; D008427:Maternal Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008880:Midwifery / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010067:Ownership / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011203:Poverty; D011209:Power, Psychological; D057184:Practice Patterns, Nurses' / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011247:Pregnancy; D017149:Private Sector / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States
keywords: Clinical franchises; Global health; Health system strengthening; International development; Midwifery; Nursing; Women's empowerment; mHealth