Gender and Equity Issues in Maternal and Neonatal Health Care in Nigeria: A Scoping Review Protocol

Few studies have echoed the need for possible approaches and actions that can facilitate gender mainstreaming in MNCH services. However, the required understanding and actions that can be employed in navigating the particularities in contexts and approaches that would be fruitful are lacking. This scoping review intends to examine existing evidence on the conceptualisation of gender issues in maternal and neonatal healthcare services and the various approaches to mainstreaming gender at policy and care delivery levels. It is anticipated that the results of this scoping review will map existing evidence and indicate the possibility of engaging in a systematic review and a meta synthesis of these knowledge for the purpose of implementation research. In this latter aim, the outcome from this scoping review will drive the conception of a national study on the intersections between gender and equity issues on the conception, delivery strategies and of the three levels of care in Nigeria and how to address equity issues in maternal and neonatal services. Attention will be focused on interrogating existing body of knowledge on gender and equity norms that drive health behaviour, health decision making, and the provision and utilisation of health care and programmatic initiatives that illustrate aspects of gender and equity concerns in health systems strengthening. The outcome of this review will help in understanding existing evidence and navigating the policy environment and actions that can facilitate the mainstreaming of gender and equity issues in MNCH in Nigeria.