Invest in women’s health, invest in tomorrow

This International Women’s Day, we the Co-Chairs of UHC2030, call on governments and advocates everywhere to unite to address gender disparities in health systems worldwide.

Advancing gender equality and ensuring equitable access to health services for women and girls is not only critical for achieving universal health coverage (UHC) but also for building stronger communities and economies worldwide. 

Women and girls account for 49.7% of the global population, representing half of humanity and therefore half of its potential. Recent analyses suggest that addressing gaps in women’s health could reduce the time women spend in poor health by almost two-thirds, improving quality of life for 3.9 billion women. Their health and well-being both directly shape, and are shaped by, broader social and economic outcomes. As such, realizing the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health[1] for women and girls[2] is not only a moral imperative but also an economic necessity.

The economic case is compelling. Each year of life expectancy gained across populations raises GDP by approximately 4%, and addressing gaps in women’s health could boost the global economy by at least US$1 trillion annually by 2040. These gains also ripple across development outcomes: when women are healthier, households are more resilient, children are more likely to thrive, and families are better protected from poverty.

Progress in women's health drives broader prosperity, yet UHC is stalling and financial protection is backsliding. While Member States have made strong political commitments, the gap between promise and practice remains wide. According to WHO and the World Bank’s 2026 global monitoring report, 4.6 billion people lack full coverage of essential health services, and 2.1 billion face financial hardship. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, not only because of system-wide shortfalls, but also because gender-specific barriers such as cost, time, mobility constraints, stigma and fragmented services make timely, continuous care harder to obtain. Moreover, many women and girls remain hidden in the statistics altogether: a lack of sex- and gender-disaggregated data means their health needs go uncounted and unaddressed.

UHC2030’s 2023 State of UHC Commitment review shows that UHC processes are still gender blind and data and testimonials from UHC2030’s 2025 From commitment to action: a global UHC action tracker (ACT for UHC) shows that even where legal frameworks are strong, implementation does not always translate into real access. For example, while laws and regulations guaranteeing full and equal access to sexual and reproductive health services are widespread in many countries, service coverage for contraceptives and family planning improved by only one percentage point between 2019 and 2023, from 74% to 75% of women of reproductive age across 184 WHO Member States.

Women’s health is both a driver and a product of strong health systems. Women represent the majority of the global health workforce, yet remain critically underrepresented in leadership and decision-making. Too many health systems continue to fail women and girls, shaped by deep-rooted biases in how care is designed, financed and delivered — including through inadequate public financing that fails to reduce out-of-pocket costs or ensure a core package of services is affordable or free of charge for vulnerable and marginalized people. Without the voices of women and girls shaping policy, health systems cannot be made to work for them.

UHC is for all countries and all people, but implementation must start by prioritizing the health needs and access of those most likely to be left behind, among whom women, adolescents and children are disproportionately represented. Health systems that are not gender-responsive are failing and will continue to fail. To ensure that everyone, everywhere has access to health services, efforts must be made to tackle health inequities, barriers to human rights, and gender inequality.

The path forward to transforming health systems is to make them intentionally gender responsive. Health systems need to be designed around the realities of women’s and girls’ lives — removing barriers of time, cost, mobility, stigma and fragmented care. This means anchoring services in resilient, people-centered primary health care; financing them adequately so that essential care is affordable or free for those who need it most; and grounding them in the voices of the communities, civil society and youth they serve.

On International Women’s Day, we call for practical, measurable action to deliver gender-responsive health systems:

• Governments should include sexual and reproductive health services as an essential benefit within women's health care; invest in resilient, people-centered primary health care that integrates services across the life course; strengthen public financing to reduce out-of-pocket costs; and improve implementation and accountability so legal commitments translate into real access.
• Development partners, including multilateral organizations and philanthropies, should align financing and technical support behind country-led priorities, with a focus on closing the largest access and financial protection gaps for women and girls. This includes supporting affordable access to essential medicines and the supplies needed for sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health services, strengthening data systems for sex- and gender-disaggregated monitoring, financing research on women’s health and investing in health workforce policies that improve working conditions and advance women’s leadership.
• Civil society, communities and youth should be supported to participate meaningfully in health governance and accountability, ensuring that lived experience, inclusive of the voices of women and girls, shapes policy and that services are responsive, equitable and trusted. Social participation is not optional; it is a core ingredient for implementation and sustained progress.

UHC2030 will continue to work with countries and partners to turn commitments into implementation that delivers. By prioritizing gender-responsive, rights-based health systems, we can accelerate progress on UHC, unlock wider social and economic gains for communities and economies and pave the way for a more equitable, resilient and prosperous world for all.

To explore the evidence and policy framework behind this agenda, read UHC2030’s gender-responsive health systems narrative. 

Read the narrative

 

 

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[1] The World Health Organization and its Chapters and Articles, 1946: World Health Organization, and International human rights law provides the foundation for the right to health. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948) recognizes everyone’s right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, further elaborated in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966). Specific treaties highlight health rights for children (CRC, 1989), women (CEDAW, 1979), and persons with disabilities (CRPD, 2006), while the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD, 1965) reinforces non-discrimination in access to services. The right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress (REBSP, 2009) further emphasizes equitable access to medical advancements. 

[2] The right to health for women and girls is reaffirmed in the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG 3 and SDG 5).  

 

References:

1. Yerramilli, P., Chopra, M. and Rasanathan, K. (2024) ‘The cost of inaction on health equity and its social determinants’, BMJ Global Health, 9(Suppl 1), e012690. doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-012690.
2. World Economic Forum (2025) Blueprint to close the women’s health gap. Geneva: World Economic Forum. (Accessed: 13 February 2026).
3. Remme, M., Vassall, A., Fernando, G. and Bloom, D.E. (2020) ‘Investing in the health of girls and women: a best buy for sustainable development’, BMJ, 369, m1175. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1175.
4. World Health Organization (n.d.) Universal health coverage (UHC) (Fact sheet). (Accessed: 2 March 2026).
5. OECD (2025) Gender equality in a changing world: Taking stock and moving forward. Gender Equality at Work. Paris: OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/e808086f-en.
6. EIGE (2025) Gender equality index 2025. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
7. UHC2030 (2025) ACT for UHC: Tracking commitments to accelerate universal health coverage (2025 report). (Accessed: 10 February 2026).
8. UHC2030 (2023) State of UHC commitment review. UHC2030.