Date: February 20th, 2025
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm CET (UTC+1)
Registration link

Health equity and equality are of major concern. Various factors significantly influence exposure to disease risk. Gender appears to be one of the most critical factors in inequalities in living conditions, access to healthcare services, and, consequently, zoonosis prevention and health protection.

Ahead of International Women’s Day 2025, PREZODE is organizing a Webinar on this topic on February 20th, hosting women and scientists of exception: Dr. Magda Robalo, President and co-founder of The Institute for Global Health and Development, member of PREZODE Steering Committee, Dr. Natalia Cediel Becerra, Associate professor and researcher at University of La Salle in Bogotá, Colombia and member of the OHHLEP, and Dr. Brigitte Bagnol, Social Anthropologist, Research Assistant Professor at Tufts University. Dr. Marisa Peyre, Epidemiologist and co-founder of PREZODE, will moderate the session, which will discuss various questions:

• What are the challenges, health risks, and socio-economic consequences of gender gaps in prevention?
• How can we address gender disparities in specific socio-cultural and political contexts?
• Why is a gender perspective necessary to better understand challenges in prevention, health exposure and care and how can we tackle them?
• Education, capacity building, livestock management, decision-making, political empowerment…: How does integrating gender issues positively impact population health as well as social aspects? 
• How to ensure that all gender aspects are integrated into comprehensive research and lasting development strategies and policies? 
• How can we ensure the sustainability of gender issues interventions?
• How does PREZODE contribute to reducing gender inequities? What is PREZODE’s added value?
• How can gender be an integral part of the One Health approach?

Dr. Magda Robalo, will give a presentation on the specific issues women encounter in disease exposure and health prevention from a public health point of view.

Natalia Cediel Becerra will share concrete examples on women in a rural context in Colombia. How empowering women and their integration in decision-making brings social benefits: food safety, better health, peacebuilding, livestock care and management… She will explain how women's specific approach to life/respect offers a mindset change and leads to transformative actions.

Brigitte Bagnol will present a case study led by Africa One Health University Network (AFROHUN) on gender, disability and social inclusion and rabies in African countries. She will demonstrate how a science-participatory approach, with a continuous accompaniment, can ensure that gender aspects are taken into account and bring efficient results at every stage in health issues & prevention with the OH approach. She will address disparities in exposure and consequences.

About the speakers

Dr Brigitte Bagnol is an anthropologist specializing in development, anthropology of ecology, communication, sexuality, anthropology of health, One Health, and nutrition with a gender lens. She is an independent consultant since 1993. She lived in Southern Africa for 30 years. She worked in Africa and Asia for different national and international agencies to give training, design or evaluate projects and conduct research. She currently works mainly on gender and emerging infectious diseases from a One Health perspective. She carried out gender analysis and developed gender strategies both for grassroots projects as well as at the Ministry level in the agriculture, education and health sectors. She develops and implements research in collaboration with research teams or as the lead researcher. She regularly gives training at different levels on gender issues in different sectors (human health, animal health, communication, infectious disease, etc).

Read more about her publications.

Dr. Natalia Cediel Becerra, has 17 years of experience working in multi-disciplinary health teams and intercultural workplaces. She is an Associate Professor and Researcher at Universidad de La Salle, Colombia, and holds a MSc Public Health (Colombian National University) and a PhD Veterinary Sciences (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy). Her current project is entitled "Co-creation of a capacity building program to develop socio-ecological resilience, gender equity and economic empowerment in rural families of Villa de Leyva, Boyacá". Dr. Cediel Becerra is an advisor and mentor for the Colombian National Health Institute for the Frontline course of the field epidemiology training program (FETP) on One Health and co-editor of the CABI One Health journal.  She founded the Biodiversity and One Health community of practice, a multidisciplinary group created to advocate for the inclusion of the approach in the National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) for Latin American countries. She serves on several international panels and networks, including OHHLEP for the Quadripartite WHO/WOAH/FAO/UNEP (2021-2023), the One Sustainable Health Forum (since 2022), the NEOH gender working group (since 2020), and the South American Network of One Health SANO (USAID-USDA).

Find her publications here.

Dr. Magda Robalo is a public health physician whose career spans for over 30 years in the global health ecosystem. A former Minister of Health of Guinea-Bissau, she embodies a unique blend of a talented and experienced public health expert with seasoned diplomacy, and fine political skills. She is the President and co-founder of The Institute for Global Health and Development, a private non-profit foundation established in December 2021, with the vision to advance women’s leadership in global health and promote women’s empowerment by addressing gender inequality, stimulating financial inclusion and integration of women into the formal economy. A member of the PREZODE Steering Committee, she is the Vice Chair of the Ethics and Governance Committee and Alternate Board Member of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for West and Central Africa. She is also a member of the Africa Public Health Foundation Council and Vice Chair of the Africa Constituency Bureau for the Global Fund. She championed transformative reforms of the health sector as the Minister of Health and led the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the High Commissioner for COVID-19 in Guinea-Bissau. She was the World Health Organisation Africa Region Director of Communicable Diseases, WHO Representative to Namibia and Ghana, Malaria Regional Advisor among other senior positions throughout her two-decade-long career with WHO. A leading voice for gender equality and equity, she is a trailblazer who stands for equitable access to quality health care for all and social justice. Dr Robalo is a medical doctor with a Master of Science degree in epidemiology and a postgraduate diploma in public health and tropical medicine. 

Find her publications here.

Dr. Marisa Peyre, co-founder of PREZODE is Deputy head of ASTRE UMR – CIRAD. She is an epidemiologist specializing in the evaluation of surveillance and control programs for animal, zoonotic, and emerging diseases. She has initial training (PhD) in immunology (human health) and a specialization in economics and health program evaluation. She drives international change in paradigm towards increased prevention of health risks using a bottom-up approach and evidence-based evaluation. She conducts research on the evaluation of surveillance and control systems (including wildlife and integrated surveillance systems), with broad expertise in the design and evaluation of health systems (both in developed and developing countries, especially related to emerging zoonotic risks such as animal Influenza, Ebola and MersCov; animal health economics; participatory epidemiology and public-private partnerships. She provides expertise for international organizations such as OIE, FAO, World Bank or Galvmed.

Find her publications here.