Tatiana Chubarova, Natalia Grigorieva

The paper deals with gender dimension of health system and health policy in modern societies. The five countries in Central Asia (Kyrgzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) provide a good example to investigate the problem for several reasons. These countries have made a commitment to reform their health-care systems though are at varying stages of implementing changes involving financing and provision of health care during the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The existing evidence suggests that today population in countries in question experience problems in access to equitable healthcare. Besides, these countries find themselves at a crossroads in terms of their cultural identity as most of political aims of health reforms are based on values and mechanisms of the Western developed countries.
The paper investigates in what instances women across the region face barriers in assess to health care and how it affects their health status, what measures are undertaken by governments to address the situation. Particular attention is paid to maternal health and services as maternal mortality rates are still quite high in the countries in question.
The analysis revealed that the issue is poorly researched and definitely the potential of taking into account gender dimension is underestimated. The authors argue that gender approach should become an integral part of health care polices in the countries of Central Asia based on understanding of importance of gender issues for the development of their societies. The idea of "gender points" is suggested to stress that gender approach in health system involves addressing health needs of both men and women as a way to increase the overall efficiency of health care systems.

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