Gender equality is a strategic enabler of polio eradication. Gender norms shape access to services, caregiver decision-making, workforce composition and community trust — making gender a decisive factor in reaching every child and sustaining eradication gains. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) recognises gender equality as a core objective of its Eradication Strategy (2022–2029), and the Gender Mainstreaming Group (GMG), co-chaired by WHO and UNICEF, supports its implementation across the partnership.

Over the year, gender-responsive programming contributed to measurable gains — higher community acceptance, improved campaign quality and accountability, and reductions in missed and zero-dose children. The GMG channelled targeted funding to gender-specific interventions across multiple settings and one regional office, focusing on community engagement and social-norm change, gender training for health workers, women's leadership and workforce participation, male engagement in caregiving and immunisation decisions, and stronger use of sex-disaggregated data.

Leadership structures increasingly enabled this work: structural reforms strengthened the safety and retention of women frontline workers; women's capacities were reinforced as Gender Champions and focal points within national immunisation (EPI) systems; and high-level advocacy elevated gender equality on the eradication agenda. Women's meaningful participation continued to grow across decision-making forums and emergency surge deployments, and gender-responsive supervision models strengthened accountability, reach and coverage. At the global level, outbreak-response standard operating procedures were updated to integrate gender equality and the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PSEAH).

Across diverse settings, a set of gender-responsive approaches proved effective and transferable:

• Cascaded gender training for frontline workers, paired with community mobilisation through trusted channels such as radio and theatre, to challenge harmful norms and build demand.
• Peer-based engagement by trained male and female community influencers to build trust and improve follow-through between campaign rounds.
• Youth engagement training young volunteers — with strong participation of young women — as community mobilisers and advocates for vaccination.
• Institutionalised training embedding gender competencies into national EPI training systems through train-the-trainer models and networks of Gender Champions.
• Trusted female volunteers deployed to identify zero-dose and hard-to-reach children, complemented by participatory approaches such as mobile cinema and community dialogue.
• Comprehensive reforms combining media campaigns, model-couple and fathers'-engagement approaches, and more flexible service delivery to reduce waiting times and avoid turning families away.
• Co-creation workshops that build national and sub-national capacity and produce practical roadmaps for gender-responsive microplanning.
• Faith engagement working with women religious leaders and faith actors as trusted advocates to expand acceptance and demand.
• Workforce reforms anti-harassment policies and gender-responsive leadership measures that improve the retention and performance of female frontline workers.

• Strong institutional and leadership support.
• Targeted funding paired with technical guidance.
• Collaboration across partners and teams.
• Capacity-building and shared learning through the GMG platform, which members consistently valued as a space for peer learning, practical guidance and motivation.