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SickKids Centre for Global Child Health led IGNIT3 receives funding from Canadian Government to help address malnutrition in Ghana, Malawi and Pakistan
May 29, 2023
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Five insights to accelerate action on nutrition through gender-responsive pedagogy
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, explore the transformative impact of gender-responsive learning in reshaping healthcare systems, building the capacities of healthcare workers and accelerating progress toward gender equality in Ghana, Malawi and Pakistan.
Posted on March 5, 2025
Marshall McLuhan’s famously touted phrase “the medium is the message” doesn’t only apply to marketing and media. The principle – that how information is communicated or presented is just as important as the content itself – is especially true in classrooms, healthcare facilities, and while working in diverse settings. We’ve seen this ourselves and it’s a critical consideration within the work we do.
Tailoring information to people’s unique needs can mean the difference between inclusion and exclusion, access and barriers. It’s the foundation of “gender-responsive pedagogy,” a key approach guiding the Increase Gains in Nutrition by Integration, Education, Evaluation & Empowerment (IGNIT3) project. Led by the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health and in partnership with WaterAid Canada and Nutrition International, this initiative is working to improve health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) outcomes in Ghana, Malawi and Pakistan by strengthening capacity and addressing gender-related barriers in service delivery.
At the project’s outset, a gender and human rights analysis revealed key opportunities to enhance gender-responsive approaches among health workers in all three target countries.In Pakistan, health workers highlighted limited training on gender-based violence as well as gender-responsive and adolescent-friendly guidelines and service delivery. In Malawi, while gender and human rights are included in health education programs, their integration is inconsistent, often leaving health workers to apply gender-responsive concepts on their own. Similarly, in Ghana, stakeholders emphasized the need to embed gender-responsiveness, adolescent-friendly and inclusive practices into health curricula.
To address these capacity-building needs, the IGNIT3 project team conducted a series of comprehensive training sessions on gender-responsive pedagogy for project staff and health professions educators.
Below, we share five key insights that emerged:
1. Content alone is not enough to improve learning outcomes.
Gender-responsive pedagogy focuses not only on what is taught, but on how learning happens. IGNIT3’s training sessions used interactive, participatory approaches to move beyond traditional lecture-based methods, encouraging deeper engagement and understanding.Through quizzes and discussion, health professions educators reflected on their own biases towards male and female students and explored the importance of adapting teaching methods to accommodate diverse learning styles. Many educators in IGNIT3 partner countries already use this interactive approach as an entry point to gender-responsive pedagogy to enhance learning outcomes and promote critical thinking across genders.
2. Understanding and applying core gender concepts is essential for health professionals.
Concepts like intersectionality, privilege and unconscious bias are often missing from health professional training. IGNIT3’s project team addressed this gap by grounding these ideas in real-world scenarios, making them more accessible and actionable.In one session with dietetics students in Malawi, participants were asked if women need their partner’s permission to access medical care. While most laughed and said, “of course not,” the educator prompted deeper reflection: Do all women in Malawi have the same experiences? How do the challenges faced by women in rural areas differ from those in urban centres? How do education and technical training influence a woman’s agency in the formal economy compared to those without the same opportunities? Guided by the findings on intersectionality from IGNIT3’s Malawi report, the class explored how identity factors influence access to health, nutrition and WASH services.
3. Pay attention to who is providing the training.
IGNIT3 aimed to equip faculty within institutions to lead gender-responsive pedagogy and trauma-informed training, fostering local ownership and sustainability.In Ghana, participants of the IGNIT3 project had previously experienced gender training delivered by external experts, making it seem like a foreign concept. As one health worker in Accra noted, “At gender-based training, somebody from outside the country taught that course and the content sometimes was not relatable… there’s a lot of work to be done on gender.” Innes Agbenu, a faculty member at the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives and a self-identified gender equality advocate, shared “the development of [my] pedagogical skills, particularly adapting teaching methods that are gender-responsive to meet unique needs of learners” was a key highlight of her IGNIT3 training. “Overall, this teaching experience has been invaluable in shaping me into a more confident and reflective educator,” she added.
4. Value of multiple touchpoints to support change in practice.
Combining online and offline learning allowed for greater flexibility, accessibility and engagement which catered to diverse learning needs and environments – a key component of gender-responsive pedagogy. SickKids, in collaboration with academic consortium partners, developed a series of continuing professional development courses for health professionals from Ghana, Malawi and Pakistan, hosted on the World Continuing Education Alliance online platform. These courses cover essential topics in nutrition, gender and WASH, providing health workers with comprehensive training in gender-responsive service delivery at both pre-service and in-service levels.
5. Include feedback loops and incorporate participant feedback.
Gender-responsive pedagogy integrated monitoring, evaluation and learning, with continuous feedback from both students and educators collected throughout implementation.For example, the dashboard for the online professional development courses tracks course uptake, learner demographics and feedback, allowing for ongoing improvements in training quality. Early feedback from health workers showcased the effectiveness of case studies in applying theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios. “The case studies helped us practice applying course concepts to real-world scenarios,” one participant shared. “Additional case studies as a PDF resource would be beneficial to new graduates.” This type of feedback informs ongoing improvements, ensuring the courses remain relevant and impactful.
As we reflect on this year’s International Women’s Day theme, “Accelerating Action,” it is clear to see how these lessons within continuous professional development for health workers play a vital role in advancing gender equality and building inclusive healthcare systems. By equipping healthcare workers and educators with gender-responsive strategies, these principles are applied in their teaching and practice, driving improved health and education outcomes – ultimately fostering a more inclusive and equitable future for all.
Launched in 2023, Increase Gains in Nutrition by Integration, Education, Evaluation & Empowerment (IGNIT3) is a sustainable capacity-building project in Ghana, Malawi and Pakistan led by The Centre for Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), in collaboration with Nutrition International and WaterAid Canada.
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