Equity, gender and health: New directions for global men’s health promotion

The Ottawa Charter emphasised the importance of building healthy public policy as a central pillar of health promotion action. Gender and equity have often been a key focus of public health policy development and implementation at local, national and international levels. At a global level, the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and subsequent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have provided international health policy direction in this space for the past two decades. The SDGs will continue to do so for the next 10 years. Indeed, a goal of the MDGs was to “promote gender equality and empower women,” and a follow-up goal of the SDGs is to strive for “gender equality”. A similar reference to gender equity and gender mainstreaming was included as a chapter in the final report of the World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health. However, global health promotion advocacy, research, policy and practice efforts addressing the nexus between equity, gender and health have typically focused on women and children's health from an explicit gender equity lens.