ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the interface between three sets of policies-poverty alleviation policies, health sector reforms, and sexual and reproductive health policies-in Latin America. The choice of policies refl ects the fact that there are critical linkages among them, which affect their collective impact on women’s health and gender equity in health. These linkages, as we will show, can be synergistic, but can also act as barriers. Furthermore, there have been signifi cant shifts in each of these policies over the last three decades, creating a rapidly changing and sometimes contradictory policy environment for gender equality and equity in health. As such, the analysis of specifi c policies in fi ve important countries in the region provides comparative insights that illumine how the structural factors embedded in the policy environment constitute key social determinants of health.
