From commitment to action: Sri Lanka strengthens gender equality, health equity and safeguards against sexual misconduct in health

Moving gender equality and health equity from principle to practice

Gender is a significant determinant of health. WHO emphasizes that gender norms, roles and relations can shape exposure to health risks, access to health information and services, experiences within health systems, and ultimately health outcomes. Gender inequalities also intersect with factors such as socioeconomic status, disability, age and geographical location, potentially compounding disadvantages.

This makes gender equality and health equity fundamental to achieving universal health coverage and ensuring that health systems respond equitably to the needs of all people.

Sri Lanka enters this discussion from a position of considerable health achievement. The country has long demonstrated strong outcomes in reproductive and maternal health. At the same time, gender-related challenges remain. The violence against women as one continuing concern, citing a lifetime prevalence of 17.2% among women aged 15-49 years in Sri Lanka.

Globally, the latest WHO estimates underscore the scale of the challenge. Approximately 840 million women aged 15 years and older, nearly one in three, have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both during their lifetime. WHO identifies violence against women as both a major public-health problem and a human-rights violation, with important consequences for physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health.

Against this background, WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) and WHO Country Office for Sri Lanka organized a four-day mission from 13-16 October 2026, working with the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, UN partners, implementing partners and WHO personnel to strengthen the integration of gender equality, health equity and safeguarding across policies, programmes, partnerships and institutional practice.

Strengthening Ministry capacity to integrate gender across health policies and programmes

The first two days brought together officials of the Ministry of Health and Mass Media for an intensive capacity-strengthening workshop in Colombo. The programme moved deliberately from concepts to application, covering social determinants of health; gender norms, roles and relations; equality, equity and intersectionality; gender analysis; gender-responsive planning; policy assessment; gender-based violence; and PRS. 

Ms Anju Pandey, Regional Advisor for GER and PRS at WHO SEARO, delivering a session during the GEHE and PRS workshop in Colombo.

The discussions were particularly timely as Sri Lanka advances national health policy and strategic planning. Ministry leadership highlighted opportunities to integrate gender equality and health equity from the outset into the National Policy on Health and Wellbeing, the National Health Strategic Plan 2026–2035 and future maternal and child health and adolescent and youth health policy processes.

Learning by doing: Applying WHO gender tools

A defining feature of the Ministry workshop was its emphasis on practical application. Participants worked with the WHO Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM), Gender Analysis Questions (GAQ), Gender Responsive Assessment Scale (GRAS), Gender Assessment Tool (GAT), and Gender and Health Planning and Programming Checklist, alongside approaches for developing gender-responsive logframes and monitoring frameworks.

Ministry of Health officials presenting their practical exercises done using the Gender Analysis Matrix tool (GAM)

These tools are part of WHO's established approach to building health-sector capacity for gender analysis and gender-responsive planning. WHO's Gender mainstreaming for health managers: a practical approach was designed to move participants from awareness to action and to strengthen their ability to develop, implement and monitor gender-responsive health policies and programmes. Participants applied these approaches to national policy and programme contexts, examining where gender-related barriers can emerge and how policies, planning processes, indicators and implementation arrangements can respond.

This practical focus reflects WHO's broader commitment to integrate equity-oriented, gender-responsive and human-rights-based approaches across health work. The Roadmap of the WHO Secretariat to advance gender equality, human rights and health equity 2023–2030 provides an overarching framework for strengthening this institutional and technical agenda.

Connecting gender equality with the health-sector response to violence

The programme deliberately linked gender-responsive health systems with the prevention of and response to gender-based violence. The second day included dedicated discussion on the health-sector response and accountability to survivors of gender-based violence, alongside WHO's PRS policy, strategy and accountability frameworks.

WHO considers the health sector a critical part of the response to violence against women. In 2016, the World Health Assembly adopted a global plan of action to strengthen the role of health systems within a multisectoral response to interpersonal violence, particularly violence against women and girls and against children. The workshop therefore positioned gender analysis not as a stand-alone exercise, but as a practical approach that can help health programmes better understand different needs, barriers, risks and unequal health outcomes, and design more responsive policies and services.

From zero tolerance as a policy to zero tolerance in practice

A second major pillar of the four-day programme was strengthening the prevention of and response to sexual misconduct. WHO defines sexual misconduct as encompassing prohibited sexual behaviour including sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and sexual harassment. WHO maintains zero tolerance for acts of sexual misconduct, for inaction in preventing, reporting or responding to such acts, and for retaliation against victims, survivors or people who report concerns. WHO's approach places the rights, needs and safety of victims and survivors at the centre. The discussions introduced WHO's new Zero Tolerance in Practice: WHO Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Misconduct 2026–2029. The strategy recognizes the role of power imbalances and inequalities in sexual misconduct and strengthens coherent prevention, accountability and response across WHO's operational settings.

Extending the conversation across the UN system

On 15 October, the programme expanded beyond the health ministry to engage partners across the UN system. A dedicated session with UN partners created space for knowledge exchange on gender equality, health equity and PRS, including the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, health-sector responses to gender-based violence, UN system-wide gender-accountability approaches, WHO gender-analysis tools, complaints and reporting mechanisms and the UN PSEA Network Action Plan. The discussions reflected a simple but important principle: these are system-wide challenges that require system-wide responses.

UN Gender and PRS focal points in Sri Lanka during the PRS session conducted by WHO SEARO.

The session aimed to share good practices and lessons, reaffirm joint commitment to gender equality and zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, and identify practical opportunities for joint action. This also connects with the wider UN accountability environment. The United Nations System-wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN-SWAP, provides standardized criteria for monitoring and accelerating gender mainstreaming across UN entities. Its current iteration, UN-SWAP 3.0, is aligned with the UN Secretary-General's Gender Equality Acceleration Plan and places greater emphasis on results-driven accountability.

Strengthening safeguards with WHO implementing partners

The four-day programme also engaged organizations that work with and through WHO. WHO's policies and PRS standards extend beyond WHO personnel to its work with partners. The dedicated implementing-partners component therefore focused on practical understanding of PRS standards, the risk-based approach, the responsibilities of implementing partners and mechanisms to strengthen safeguarding. Participants were introduced to the PRS Accountability Framework, the Implementing Partner PRS Self-Assessment Tool and the UN Partner Portal, with discussion on how these mechanisms can support risk assessment, prevention and accountability within partnerships.

The participants from implementing partners together with the WHO SEARO and WHO Sri Lanka team members.

This reflects the direction of WHO's 2026-2029 PRS Strategy, which intensifies efforts to operationalize accountability not only within WHO but also across its operational relationships.

The discussion also provided an opportunity for implementing partners to share experiences, challenges and support needs, helping translate safeguarding standards into practical institutional action.

Bringing the agenda home

The final day turned the focus inward to the WHO Country Office for Sri Lanka, connecting the external partnership agenda with WHO's own programming and organizational culture. WHO technical teams discussed the integration of gender, equity and rights across Country Office workstreams, operationalization of the Gender Equality Action Plan at country level, department-level actions, and the application of gender tools across technical programmes. A separate internal PRS orientation focused on the new WHO PRS Strategy and provided space for open discussion with staff.

One agenda, four audiences, a shared direction

The four-day programme intentionally connected four interrelated levels of action:

Government and the health system: strengthening the capacity of Ministry officials to apply gender analysis, gender-responsive planning and assessment approaches to national health policies and programmes.

The UN system: strengthening knowledge exchange, shared commitments and collaboration on gender equality, health equity and PRS.

Implementing partners: strengthening understanding of PRS standards, responsibilities, risk management and safeguarding tools.

WHO: building internal capacity to integrate gender, equity and rights across technical work while reinforcing a safe and accountable organizational culture.

Taken together, these connected engagements helped move the conversation beyond awareness towards institutional practice, accountability, partnership and application.

As WHO Representative to Sri Lanka, Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav noted in his closing message to WHO colleagues, the ambition is to make technical work gender-responsive and workplaces safe and equal, so that gender-related barriers and discrimination do not prevent people from accessing and benefiting from health services.

WHO Representative to Sri Lanka, Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav delivering his remarks at the GEHE and PRS Workshop in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 13 October 2026.

The conclusion of the four-day programme therefore marks not an endpoint but a platform for continued collaboration. Its lasting value will lie in the extent to which the tools, commitments and partnerships strengthened in Colombo are reflected in policies, plans, programmes, partnerships and organizational practice.

WHO remains committed to working with the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, the United Nations system, implementing partners and its own teams to advance gender equality, health equity, dignity, safety and accountability in and through health.