Health and Healthcare Systems

A new era for women’s health: Uniting global leaders to improve lives and economies in 2025 and beyond

The Global Alliance for Women's Health advocates for women’s health in 2025 and beyond thanks to the work of its members.

The Global Alliance for Women's Health advocates for women’s health in 2025 and beyond thanks to the work of its members. Image: Shutterstock/michaeljung

Amira Ghouaibi
Head, Global Alliance for Women's Health, World Economic Forum
Sanjana Bhardwaj
Deputy Director, Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • Women’s health continues to be undervalued, creating a gender gap when it comes to research, funding and healthcare provision.
  • The Global Alliance for Women’s Health was launched a year ago to improve research, financing and policy advocacy for women’s health.
  • After a busy first year, the alliance will continue to advocate for women’s health in 2025 and beyond thanks to the significant work of its members.

Despite women accounting for half of the global population and making many personal and family healthcare and economic decisions, their health is often disregarded as a niche issue. But a global movement is uniting leaders and experts around the socio-economic opportunities of closing the women’s health gap.

The Global Alliance for Women’s Health, hosted by the World Economic Forum and co-chaired by the Gates Foundation and the Ministry of Health of Brazil, was launched a year ago to improve research and innovation, financing and policy advocacy for women’s health.

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A year of impact

This week marks one year since the alliance was founded. During this time, it has brought together over 120 member organizations from the private, public and philanthropic sectors to address systemic inequities in women's health. It has since become a trusted multi-stakeholder platform for highlighting the women’s health gap and committing efforts to close it.

In its first year, the alliance developed and implemented several high-impact projects and secured $55 million in new funding to improve data, research and care delivery for women’s health. The alliance also launched the Community of Champions on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly 2024, enlisting 15 influential advocates to elevate women’s health on global platforms.

Forming this community has been an important step toward lifting up women’s voices and emboldening their leadership in this space. And there is more to come in 2025.

In January 2025, in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute, the alliance is launching the Women’s Health Impact Tracking (WHIT) Platform to deliver insights and achievable metrics to identify and address disparities in women’s health. The launch of the platform will also coincide with the publication of the second women’s health gap report, Blueprint to Close the Women's Health Gap: How to Improve Lives and Economies for All.

What women's health data tells us

The alliance’s research into the women's health gap shows that women’s health priorities are severely underfunded relative to their health burden.

In fact, just nine conditions account for one-third of women’s health gaps across data availability, care delivery and effectiveness of care: menopause, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), endometriosis, maternal hypertensive disorder, post-partum haemorrhage, migraine, ischaemic heart disease, cervical cancer and breast cancer.

PMS, menopause, maternal health conditions, cervical cancer and endometriosis make up 14% of the women’s health burden but received less than 1% of cumulative research funding allocated to conditions that drove the women’s health gap between 2019 and 2023.

Addressing gaps in these nine conditions could unlock 27 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) annually, according to the research – equivalent to adding 2.7 healthy days per year, per woman. It would also yield $1 trillion in annual global GDP by 2040.

Research for the second iteration of the women’s health gap report reinforces the previous report's findings that data across these nine conditions is inconsistent, underreported and unreliable. This lack of data leaves critical gaps in policy leaders' and health experts' ability to understand, address and invest in women's health, particularly in relation to these nine conditions.

WHIT will highlight critical gaps in data, care delivery and care efficacy, and quantify the potential economic gains from closing these gaps. The platform will provide data to guide strategic investments, optimize resource allocation and help the global community to inspire new commitments to close the women’s health gap.

Using the data to transform research practices

Research also shows that women make up only 22% of phase one clinical trial participants. This lack of representation leaves critical gaps in understanding women’s unique health needs, resulting in misdiagnoses and unsafe treatments.

To bring about a much-needed culture change in research practice, the alliance launched an initiative on policy transformations in women's health with a working group of more than 40 organizations including businesses, regulatory bodies, funding agencies and research institutions.

The group aims to transform the policy landscape in women’s health by advocating for solutions to drive groundbreaking innovation in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of women-specific conditions. It wants more women to be included in clinical trials – particularly pregnant and lactating women – and to disaggregate clinical trial data by sex, among other solutions.

Driving action in low- and middle-income countries

To translate awareness into action, the alliance is partnering with public and private sector actors to mobilize commitments and resources to improve women’s lives at a country level. The alliance’s Cervical and Breast Cancer Coalition, in partnership with the Ministries of Health of Kenya and Zambia, and Siemens Healthineers, is working to bridge the gaps in cervical and breast cancer care.

In Kenya, the coalition implemented three taskforces to focus on training programmes for community health promoters, initiatives to enhance healthcare worker capacity and mentorship, and advocacy and communication campaigns. In Zambia, the coalition recently conducted stakeholder workshops to identify gaps in cancer care and will use this to take action in 2025 to address these challenges and simplify the patient journey.

The alliance, in collaboration with the Gates Foundation and Ferring Pharmaceuticals, has also established the Global Activators Network on Maternal Health. This initiative provides a platform to promote successful interventions, create blueprints for effective public-private partnerships and cultivate robust country-level ecosystems dedicated to maternal health.

Using the collective expertise and experiences of member countries, the Global Activators Network aims to inspire progress and ensure healthy lives and wellbeing for all mothers. It will kick off its collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Nigeria this year.

Rallying commitments and funding for sustained action

Commitments to finance women’s health are needed to sustain and enhance the impactful work being done to improve women’s health and lives.

To address the funding gap and develop an undeniable business case to invest in women’s health, the alliance and Tower Capital are establishing the Women's Health Responsible Investment Consortium. This group will provide insights into the return on investment in women’s health innovation, empower female innovators and investors and encourage innovation that addresses the unique and diverse challenges women face across their lifespan.

In just one year, the alliance has proven to be a trusted convener to launch new partnerships that bring together stakeholders across diverse sectors. As it evolves, it will seek to create more initiatives, while forging new partnerships that further accelerate progress on women’s health.

To sustain the momentum around women’s health research and funding, advocates must continue to spotlight the challenges and opportunities on a global stage. The board, champions and members of the alliance have already shown their commitment to elevating women’s health on the global agenda – and this will continue in 2025.

The challenge of any global initiative is sustaining momentum. By continuing to mobilize resources and commitments from both the public and private sectors, the alliance is driving progress to help bridge the women’s health gap.

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Related topics:
Health and Healthcare SystemsEquity, Diversity and Inclusion
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