New Opportunities for Women in Remote Areas Discussed at EEF

The Roscongress Foundation’s Healthy Life Project, with the support of the Eurasian Women’s Forum Council and the Women for a Healthy Life Project, held a panel session titled ‘Women’s Agenda for a Healthy Society: New Opportunities in Remote Areas’. The event took place at the Eastern Economic Forum as part of the business programme for the conference ‘Creating a Healthy Society in the Far East and Arctic’, which falls within plan for Russia’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023. Chairmanship events are being operated by the Roscongress Foundation.

Women are actively involved in the social agenda: at work, in social entrepreneurship, and social and political life, as they implement and develop their own public projects. However, women often face restrictions, both due to existing gender stereotypes and also in terms of opportunities and support for their activities from the government and public institutions. Women living in remote areas are particularly in need of support, as a lack geographical unity, the necessary infrastructure, and development institutions, as well as an information and educational vacuum and the inability to improve their managerial skills prevent them from fully developing their initiatives and promoting the agenda of a healthy lifestyle. New formats of assistance and an effective system of political measures are required that would enable women (and especially mothers) to strengthen the social and health protection agenda, unite people, and actively participate in the social policy of a macro-region and the country as a whole.

“One of the most important tasks facing the domestic health care system is the need to establish a value system and a culture of disease prevention and health preservation. Medical workers and volunteers, including those in remote areas, are an integral part of this process. On the eve of the 4th Eurasian Women’s Forum, we decided to hold a pre-forum event on the ‘Women’s Agenda for a Healthy Society: New Opportunities in Remote Areas’, to expand the EEF discussion Forum. I would like to take this opportunity to invite all women involved in medicine and living in the far reaches of our great country to participate in the event,” Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of theRussian Federation Galina Karelova said.

Participants of the panel session discussed priorities for Russian social policy, the role played by women in achieving these priorities, what new development opportunities and support measures socially active women should be provided with, what technologies could help unite self-motivated women living in remote areas, how to promote new tendencies for women to combine multiple roles in society, and what corporate and regional programmes supportingsocially active working women have proven effective and are worth scaling up.

 “Socially active women drive the development of a healthy environment. It is extremely important that we support such activities, scale up initiatives, and provide informational support.  Platforms where women can come together toshare experiences, showcase the results of their activities, and get support from their colleagues play a great role in the implementation of social programmes,” Director of the National Medical Research Center for Preventive Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Oksana Drapkina said.

Director of the Research Institute for Healthcare Organization and Medical Management of Moscow Healthcare Department Elena Aksenova called on active women to join the Women for a Healthy Life community and announced a contest of the same name for health care social projects.  The competition is being held to support national policies aimed at promoting public health and to bring together women’s community leaders from across Russia. The social projects showing the greatest potential for scaling in different regions of the Russian Federation have been identified for the competition. It will be possible to submit applications for the second Women for a Healthy Life contest online atwomenforhealth.ru in the near future.  

Also participating in the event were First Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation Olga Batalina, Director of the State Museum of Sport, Deputy Chairman of the Commission on Physical Culture and Promotion of a Healthy Lifestyle of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, Research Supervisorat the Institute of Sports Management and Law of the National Research University Higher School of Economics Elena Istyagina-Eliseeva, Vice Rector for Learning Activities of Educational Center SENEZH (“Russia – the Country of Opportunities” Project) Maria Afonina, and Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Primorsky Region Olga Romanova.

The socio-economic development of the Arctic is a key priority for Russia’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021–2023. In general, the sustainable development of the Arctic territories depends in large part on the quality of the human capital available. Russia’s chairmanship is focussed on maintaining the sustainability and viability of the peoples of the North, promoting measures for their adaptation to climate change, improving people’s well-being,health, education, and quality of life, and ensuring progressive socio-economic development throughout the region.