Might 23, 2023 – Near a 3rd of nationwide delegations to this yr’s World Well being Meeting are led by ladies, a major enchancment in a key gender fairness measure that for years has been caught at lower than 1 / 4 of delegations led by ladies.

The annual rely by Girls in World Well being (WGH), a corporation which campaigns for gender equal management and gender fairness in international well being, revealed a rise of 9% within the variety of ladies occupying Chief Delegate positions on the World Well being Meeting (WHA76), bringing their general illustration in decision-making to 32%.

“Whereas we commend these nationwide governments who put ladies in cost and acknowledge this important enchancment in progress in the direction of gender equal management, the essential actuality is ladies are round 70 p.c of the general well being workforce and are as much as 90 p.c of frontline well being staff,” stated Dr Roopa Dhatt, Govt Director of Girls in World Well being.

“For each lady working in well being, there are nonetheless three males making top-down choices about well being priorities and the design and supply of well being applications.”

“We should acknowledge the invaluable experience that girls deliver to the desk and acknowledge that because the World Well being Group (WHO) celebrates its seventy fifth anniversary, we can not afford to attend one other 75 years to realize gender parity in international well being decision-making. When ladies’s voices are sidelined, all of us undergo from the lack of their experience in delivering well being.

“The WHO has a accountability to handle the historic underrepresentation of girls in WHA delegations,” states Dr. Roopa Dhatt, Govt Director and Co-Founding father of WGH.

WGH and its 49 chapters worldwide name for a major improve in women-led delegations for the 2024 World Well being Meeting, aiming for a goal of fifty% illustration. Governments, because the decision-makers for his or her delegations, should be held accountable for the marginalization of girls’s voices in management, particularly in a sector the place ladies are the face of healthcare.

“The World Well being Meeting serves as the very best standard-setting physique in international well being. Choices made on the WHA form international well being priorities, making them essential in life and dying conditions for ladies and ladies,” Dr. Dhatt states.

“When males dominate decision-making roles, well being techniques typically favor male views, leading to techniques and providers set as much as prioritize males’s wants and better-paid positions and promotions going to males, regardless of them being the minority within the sector. This systemic bias holds ladies again of their careers and undermines the standard of well being techniques by disregarding their skilled experience and data.

Girls in World Well being’s current report, “The State of Girls and Management in World Well being,” delves into gender inequality in management and its influence on well being system performance and effectivity. It emphasizes that restricted management prospects for ladies contribute to the present Nice Resignation phenomenon, which is undermining healthcare techniques worldwide.

Dr. Dhatt concludes, “Enhancing alternatives for ladies in management, closing the gender pay hole, and bettering working situations via paid maternity depart and family-friendly insurance policies are important steps in addressing systemic well being points.”

For media inquiries or additional data, please contact:

Joan Bolger
Communications Supervisor
joan.bolger@womeningh.org

NOTES TO EDITOR:

International locations with ladies Chief Delegates: Albania, Andorra, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, Comoros, Prepare dinner Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Finland, Guyana, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Moldova, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Senegal, Seychelles, Slovenia, South Sudan, Sweden, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Vietnam, Zambia.

About Girls in World Well being

Girls in World Well being (WGH) is the fast-growing women-led motion demanding gender fairness in international well being. Whereas ladies characterize 70% of the well being workforce and 90% of frontline well being staff worldwide, they maintain only a quarter of management positions. Now with supporters in additional than 43 nations and 47 official chapters predominantly in low-income nations, Girls in World Well being campaigns for equal illustration for ladies in well being management; equitable pay and ending unpaid work for ladies well being staff; safety and secure and respectable work; and the prevention of sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment. These are the important foundations for sturdy well being techniques, Common Well being Protection and international well being safety.

Our occasions calling consideration to issues with related information, suggestions and proposed options about rising points and well being coverage structure regularly entice Ministers, Ambassadors, Heads of multilateral organizations, well being, improvement and gender leaders, and professionals, representatives of youth actions and NGOs from everywhere in the world.