WONCA Working Party: Women & Family Medicine

Women & Family Medicine

The WONCA Working Party on Women and Family Medicine (WWPWFM) was established at the 16th International Conference of WONCA in Durban, in 2001. The Working Party takes a leadership role in advocating for the concerns raised by women doctors and women’s health in family medicine/general practice. The Working Party was consolidated at the 17th WONCA World conference, in Orlando, in 2004. It has had successful preconference events at many meetings since, including the 18th WONCA World conference in Singapore, 2007, regional meetings, and at the WONCA World conference, in Cancun, in May 2010. WWPWFM has workshops and events at WONCA regional meetings, and aims to have a policy development working meeting in between each triennial WONCA World conference.

WWPWFM is a policy initiator in gender equity. The Hamilton Equity Recommendations (HER statement) and 10 steps to gender equity, developed at the mid triennial meeting held in Hamilton Canada, in 2006, were adopted by the WONCA World Council, in Singapore in 2007. Important by-laws changes, and the establishment of the WONCA Organisational Equity Committee, were adopted by the WONCA World Council, in Cancun in 2010.

Membership is open to all interested family doctors. Interested doctors are invited to contact your regional lead and attend the WWPWFM workshops at regional WONCA meetings (or click the link below).

Join our working party

Convenor / Chair

Dr Elizabeth Reji

Email Chair

Dr Elizabeth Reji is a Family Physician and the Chair: WONCA Working Party on Women and Family Medicine (WWPWFM). She has been a member of this group since 2009 and was the Lead: Africa region WWPWFM (2018-2021) and has mentored many African women into leadership. She represents the WONCA women’s party in the WONCA Organisation Equity Committee and ensures that there is gender equity in WONCA policies and conferences. She represents Africa on the WONCA Finance committee, as the treasurer of WONCA Africa region since 2018, and monitors the financial aspect of the WONCA Africa region. She has been on the WONCA Africa Executive Committee for the past 10 years. She is also a member of the WONCA Educational Committee, ensuring that the Family Medicine education follows a standardized policy throughout the globe.

She is an Indian by origin but have pursued her medical career in South Africa since 1996. After graduating from India and worked in rural parts of India for 3 years, decided to continue her practice in Africa. She has worked only in the public health sector within the rural and semi-urban areas. She has a master’s degree in Family Medicine (Pretoria University), Fellowship from the College of Family Medicine, South Africa & Postgraduate Diploma in Health Science Education (Witwatersrand University). She is a golden Key awardee and have completed some courses in project management, women leadership, financial management and essentials of MBA. She has been a Clinical Head of Department: Family Medicine, she works as an administrator, manager, educator, clinician, and researcher. She has supervised registrars and students as part of her teaching field. She is also passionate about women’s health and community-oriented family practice. Determination, dedication, and perseverance has led to her achievements, despite many difficulties in life. God is her guidance.

Co-Convenor or other office bearers

Executive Members

Executive

Chair

Dr Elizabeth Reji

Chair Elect

Dr Hina Jawaid

Past Chairs

Dr Noemi Mimi Doohan (USA)
Dr Aileen Espina (Philippines)
Dr Kate Anteyi (Nigeria)
Dr Amanda Barnard (Australia)
Prof Amanda Howe (UK)

Executive team

Chair: Elizabeth Reji)
Chair Elect: Hina Jawaid)
African Regional Lead: Mercy Wanjala)
Europe Regional Lead: Nina Monterio)
Iberoamericana Regional lead: Amarantha Nieto Trujillo)
South Asia regional lead: Hina Jawaid)
Communication Lead: Humaira Khattak
Young doctor rep: Eloho Hambolu

Duties:

Hina Jawaid: WWPWFM liaison officer to WHO
Nina Monterio: WWPWFM liaison officer to Family Violence Collaboration fund
Mercy Wanjala: WWPWFM liaison officer to Rural health
Elizabeth Reji: WWPWFM officer to OEC committee
Lucy Candib and Humaira Khattak: Communication officers:
Eloho Hambolu: WWPWFM Liaison officer to young doctor movement

Regional team information:

Communication Leads:

Africa: Patricia Idoko
Europe: Yusianmar Mariani
Iberoamericana: Dulce Paola Salinas Espinosa
South Asia: Humaira Khattak

Young Doctor representation:

Africa: Eloho Hambolu
Europe: Helena Alonso Valencia
Iberoamericana: Emylow Cardona Esquivel
South Asia: Gunjan Jha

Country leads:

Africa Region:

Ogadinma Mba- Nigeria
Wongani Kumwenda- Malawi
Agnes Katsidzira- Zimbabwe
Elizabeth Reji- South Africa

Asia Pacific region:

Geetha Venkatram-Australia

EMRO region:

Suha Hamshari -Palestine

North America:

Sabriquet Pinder-Butler and Paula Henry-Caribbean

Iberoamericana Region:

Claudia Marcela Guerrero Flores & Daniela Cortez - Bolivia
Yasmine Nascimento &Thanis Unicamp - Brazil
Paola Carranza Cepeda & Mónica Álvarez Jaramillo- Colombia
Lilia Turquina González Cárdenas - Cuba
Jenny Villa Fajardo- Ecuador
Amarantha NIeto Trujillo, Dulce Paola Salinas Espinosa & Vladimir Reyes Salinas - México
Maritza Morayma Ortíz Arica & Katherine Johanna Marlene Bardales Castro- Perú
Carolina Arbelo &Jacqueline Ponzo - Uruguay

South Asia region:

Hina Jawaid -Pakistan
Vidhya Raghavendren - India
Dilini Ilapperuma Baranage - Sri Lanka
Rajani Giri – Nepal
Kinley Bhutti – Bhutan
Paramita Karim – Bangladesh

Europe region:

Nina Monteiro- Portugal
Elena Klusova-Sprain
Raquel Gomez Bravo- Luxembourg
Sarah Cumps- Belgium
Lihi Schwartz-Isreal
Yusiamar Mariani- UK.

Vision and Mission of WONCA Working Party on Women & Family Medicine

Vision: To promote the role of women family doctors working in Wonca to highlight their special contributions and reduce the barriers facing them, thereby enabling them to reach their full potential and enhance the contributions of family physicians/GPs around the world to clinical care, women’s health, education, research and leadership in family medicine.

Objectives of the WONCA Working Party on Women & Family Medicine

• To develop a communication platform within WWPWFM and Wonca
• To develop a regional team in all the WONCA regions
• To have activities on women’s health in all the regions
• To develop mentorship programs and support women to become leaders within the regions and WONCA.
• To develop teaching and research activities within the regions
• To have Pre-conferences and fireplace wisdom in all the regional and world conferences

News

Atai Omoruto Scholarship Award Fund

An appeal from the chair of the Working Party on Women & Family Medicine to support the Atai Omoruto Scholarship Award Fund

World Health Day: Healthy beginnings, hopeful future

The health and well-being of mothers and children are inextricably linked, influencing not only individual lives, but also the prosperity of families, communities, and societies.

IWD: Accelerating Action

International Women's Day 2025

Honouring Dr Anne Deborah Atai Omoruto

Help continue the legacy of Dr Anne Deborah Atai Omoruto by supporting the her Scholarship Award.

Protecting Planetary Health in South Asia

Join us on 15 February 2025 at 08:00 UTC for an engaging webinar on environmental change, urbanization, and planetary health in South Asia.

Publications & Documents

Publications

LEAD statement 2009
Gender Equity Standards for WONCA Scientific Meetings 2009
Monograph 2008
Cheryl Levitt C, Candib L, Lent B, Howard M. 2008 Women Physicians and Family Medicine Monograph/Literature Review
Hamilton Equity Recommendations (HER) statement 2006: English
Recomedaciones de equidad de Hamilton declaracion HER: Español
10 Steps to Gender Equity and Health 2006

Reports

WONCA News report, Feb 2012

WONCA News report, April 2011

Activities

WWPWFM has a workplan which is set at the preconference at each WONCA World meeting, and reviewed and updated at the mid triennial meeting. The WWPWFM supports for the next biennium 2016-2018 include both internal and external activities with regional and national focus on the needs of women; improving women’s health at primary care level while strengthening women family doctors’ interest and engagement at WONCA regions.