National Women’s Health Plan, Selected Countries Experiences and Necessity of Developing It in Iran: A Narrative Review Article

BACKGROUND: National plans have an important role in defining vision, goals, priorities, and action plans. The present paper examined the international experience in developing upstream documents concerning women’s health; it regards the necessity of developing Iranian women’s health plan. METHODS: This review, conducted with search in electronic databases and literature of no limitation in terms of years conducted. The phrases such as “woman health policy”, “woman health promotion”, “woman health strategy” and “woman health plan” were searched. The criteria based on which the countries were chosen were the degree to which they were developed in health system, health indexes, the accessibility of required information, and the possibility of benchmarking the new methods. RESULTS: Emphasize on gender as a determinant of health, increasing the economic activities of women, decreasing the violence against women, gender-based researches, and inter-sectorial approach are some common items in the women’s health plans in selected countries. The main upstream documents about women health in Iran such as ‘Research policies and principles of women issues’, “Women Charter of Rights in Iran” were not developed and implemented in form of a comprehensive plan so we need to formulate a full women health national plan that summarizes all previous policies with addition of new needed strategies inclusion. CONCLUSION: Developing a national plan for Iranian women’s health regarding with selected countries experiences makes a long-term vision for health and obtains the institutional and organizational efforts and resources necessary for women health promotion in Iran.