Experts on Women’s Health Innovations (WHI) at the Gates Foundation have expressed displeasure at the near-zero financing of women’s health globally, stating that “only 1% of research and development funding goes to female-specific conditions outside of oncology”.
The WHI aims to positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions of women around the world, and help achieve a decline in maternal mortality.
Expressing this concern during a media briefing on Monday, the President, Gender Equality Division, The Gates Foundation, Dr. Anita Zaidi, bemoaned the limited funding and low attention to women’s health.
Although Zaidi announced a $2.5 billion commitment for the next five years to women’s health innovations, the largest commitment to women’s health R&D ever made, she noted that it hasn’t been enough and that women’s and maternal health continue to remain extremely neglected and ignored.
Responding to a question: how will countries in the Global South control maternal mortality in the midst of aid cuts, with their governments not paying adequate attention to these important issues, asked by Africa Health Report (AHR), Zaidi said, “We need to prioritize the most to save the most lives”.
Additionally, the president of Gender Equality Division clarifies, “I would argue very strongly that maternal and child health needs to be prioritized by governments and by philanthropy and by civil society to be able to not only regress in the progress that we have made for maternal mortality, but to continue to accelerate. That is one of the reasons that this announcement, I am so hopeful, will accelerate the pace of innovation that is available to women around the world”.
Another expert at the briefing, the Director, WHI, The Gates Foundation, Dr. Ru-fong Joanne Cheng, also noted that women face numerous challenges and needs regarding healthcare due to inadequate global financing. He said, “Women spend 25% more of their time in poor health, and a woman dies in childbirth every two minutes. It’s time to change that”.
Cheng highlighted the gaps in funding and access to care, concluding that “These gaps have real consequences”.
The experts urge expansion of focus to cover other conditions like: strategic care and maternal immunization, maternal nutrition and gut health, making more contraceptive options available for women around the world through more R&D in areas of contraception, sexually transmitted infections, diagnosis, and new treatment options, and gynecological conditions such as heavy menstrual bleeding.
Also, the experts call out for more commitment to women’s health investment from other funding agencies, governments, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, academics, advocates, and other stakeholders to address the needs and concerns of girls and women.
