Elevating Women's Voices

Leveraging Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and Gender Data in Pan-African COVID-19 Vaccine Strategies for WHO Policy Inclusion

Abstract

This study investigates the transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) and its intersection with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), focusing on the "living culture" of frontline health service providers within a 1500-member pan-African policymakers and practitioners’ think-tank. Conducted over six months during the COVID-19 crisis, the research captures macro-level policy decisions made at the WHO strategic level to safeguard human survival. Using ethnographic methods, Discourse Analysis (DA), and Critical Management Theory (CMT), the study identifies themes of bodily autonomy, vaccine decision making, and privacy concerns, particularly for female stakeholders. Positioned as a "temporal insider," the researcher analyzed communications, including emails, chats, memos, visual memes, press coverage and WHO briefings among African health leaders. A feminist critique was applied to a pilot longitudinal case study (DGC COVID vaccine case, 2020–2021), revealing gendered assumptions embedded in global vaccine policy. The ICH-based intervention, developed in collaboration with Pan African healthcare actors, exposed management blind spots perpetuated by transnational health agencies. Findings highlight a critical exclusion of women from high-level COVID-19 vaccine policy discussions in Pan-Africa, undermining their access to healthcare and informed medical choices. The study calls for gender-disaggregated data and the inclusion of women as key stakeholders in health governance. Theoretically, it challenges the dominance of big data biomedical approaches in crisis response, arguing for qualitative mixed methods to address Omitted Variable Bias (OVB). Ultimately, it demonstrates how field-level discourse and policy receptivity can counteract prejudicial laws and foster more equitable health outcomes.