Consensus building for developing gender-sensitive leading health indicators

Objectives: This article seeks to describe the process of reaching consensus for a gender-sensitive set of leading health indicators between and within multi-level stakeholders from various cultural, social and economic conditions. In 2000 the WHO Centre for Health Development (WKC) embarked on a multilevel participatory process aiming at the formulation of a well-accepted set of gender-sensitive leading health indicators - and considerable interest in their use. Different stakeholders have different needs and demands for information. Failure to reach consensus between the relevant actors led to the development and use of indicators by different groups, creating situation of confusion for end users of data. Methods: The consensus process took almost two years starting from 2003 and WKC played a facilitating role in this process. The consultation process was done through different mechanisms ranging from international meetings, online voting and expert group meeting. Results: The core set of indicators was brought down to 34 leading health indicators and was pilot tested in two sites. Preliminary results of the pilot testing showed that the set was considered as valuable tool for policy and decision-making at various levels. Conclusion: The consensus over the gender-sensitive core set of leading health indicators was a relatively long and extensive process and required some kind of creativity to identify appropriate platforms for consultation. But the key point is that perspectives of multiple stakeholders were included as much as possible.