Recent decades have delivered major advances in global health, yet not all groups have experienced the benefits of this progress equally. Women’s and children’s health continues to be underfunded, and maternal and child mortality remains unacceptably high.
95 %
Nearly all maternal deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries
14 million
Each year, about 14 million women hemorrhage in childbirth
2 minutes
Every 2 minutes, a woman dies of cervical cancer
5 million
Nearly 5 million children die before their 5th birthday each year
A historic one-size-fits-all approach, largely based on the needs and physiologies of men, has contributed to countless gaps in care. Women and children have been excluded from medical research, creating enormous blind spots in understanding, and conditions that primarily affect women or children are largely underfunded and deprioritized.
Without access to screening tools, treatments and preventive medicines, women in low- and middle-income countries are at disproportionate risk from preventable, treatable complications in pregnancy and during birth.
Diagnostic tests developed for adults are often not sensitive enough to identify disease in children and medicines and other treatment devices must be adapted to ensure they are safe, effective and palatable for the youngest and most vulnerable, while additional investigation is necessary to guide correct dosing. Without additional funding and attention, children often go undiagnosed and untreated for preventable, treatable diseases.
The unequal societal treatment of women and girls often means they have less control over decisions about their bodies and undermines their access to health information and critical health care services, while also overlooking conditions or diseases that mainly affect women and girls.
We focus on three main areas: promoting safe pregnancy and childbirth, improving child survival, and prioritizing women’s access to health care by accelerating access to high-quality and affordable screening, treatment and prevention tools.
