Drawing on the research and advocacy work being conducted by the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH), a national community-based organization in Victoria, Australia, the paper analyzes female international students’ experiences with accessing sexual and reproductive health information and services. Accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services is one of a number of areas identified by MCWH in which international students experience unequal treatment. The limitations of international students’ mandatory health insurance is of particular concern because it appears to conflict with Australia’s human rights obligations to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination and to ensure appropriate services in connection with pregnancy. Given the social, cultural and economic benefits international students bring to the country in which they choose to study, state action on equitable health access for international students is urgently called for.

Objectives: This paper reports on a comparative evaluation of indicators that are in use, or proposed for use, by leading international organizations to assess their adequacy for the purpose of monitoring key issues related to gender, equity and health.Methods: A comprehensive health information framework was developed on a generic framework by the ISO (2001) to use for the analysis of gender equity within mainstream health systems. A sample of 1 095 indicators used by key international organizations were mapped to this framework and assessed for technical quality and gender sensitivity. Results:The evaluation found defi ciencies in the indicators currently in use, from the viewpoint of both technical quality and underlying conceptual bases, as well as in their coverage of the framework, and especially in relation to health system performance.Conclusions: Routine administrative reporting offered large numbers of indicators but these did not allow for monitoring of gender equity and health. The paper concludes that there is merit in developing a core set of leading indicators that can be used for comparisons across peer countries and communities.Performance measurement has become a common feature of health organizations at national and international levels, and the importance of developing and using appropriate indicators has been of concern to the series of international meetings organized by the WHO Kobe Centre (WKC) on women and health and welfare systems. The fi rst of these meetings resulted in the Awaji Declaration (WKC 2000) which outlined principles for reforming the health and welfare system by shifting focus from health care policy to healthy public policy; from access to services to access to health; from institutions to integrated services delivery; from provider-driven care to client and community-centred care; and from narrow indicators of morbidity and effi ciency to broader indicators of equity and well-being. The Canberra Communiqué (WKC 2001) outlined a range of strategies to effect reform, including building women's leadership and capacity in data collection and analysis for action. It called for public health and health services data to be disaggregated by sex, and for collection design and analysis to 'identify gender differences in experiences, impacts, causes and responses to health needs' (WKC 2001). The Kobe Action Plan, (WKC 2002) operationalised the Communiqué and identifi ed the comparative evaluation of indicators of gender equity, gender equality and health used by international agencies as an immediate priority. The work described here is part of this project. Box 1 Defi nitionsGender -the cultural, social, temporal and political constructions of men and women, girls and boys.Gender indicators -measure the status of women against some 'normative' standard or reference group (e. g. men) and should be able to measure changes in women's status and roles over time.Equity -the equally fair treatment of women and men, including recognition that women and men have different needs, prefere...

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A significant number of men are affected by reproductive health disorders; however, the level of awareness and education for some disorders is limited. Our aim was to explore the dynamics of community education activities being undertaken in Australia that address or include information on male reproductive health issues, to identify health promotion initiatives that help raise the awareness of male reproductive health disorders. A survey was distributed to medical practitioners, health services and community organisations across Australia to identify organisations providing male reproductive health information. Those organisations that had evaluated their activity were further analysed to determine if their focus was effectively providing education on male reproductive disorders. Of the 299 education activities reporting the inclusion of male reproductive health information, prostate cancer was the most commonly addressed health issue (55.5%). Only 89 activities (29.8%) had been evaluated by the education providers, to determine whether their aims had been met. Several factors were found to have an impact on the perceived success of education activities, including (i) the focus, but only for prostate cancer, prostate disease and testicular cancer activities (ii) method of delivery (face-to-face group presentations and one-on-one discussions), and (iii) location (remote areas). While the overall evaluation of community education activities focusing on male reproductive health is limited, several factors have been identified from this survey that may impact on the success of future male specific health promotion activities.