2024 has been a big year for GH5050. This year marked our 7th annual report on gender equality in global health and an expansion into two new sectors. We’re celebrating by sharing our highlights from the past year and some of the positive changes we have seen since our first report in 2018.
We’re grateful to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Co-Impact for their support and making our work possible, and to our numerous remarkable partners that enable our work to reach further and deliver impact for gender equality and social justice.
“The Global Health 50/50 report is considered by the Gates Foundation’s Gender Equality Division to be among the most impactful funded assets and reports in their grant portfolio.”
Our 7th Global Report
In July, we launched our 2024 annual report on the policies and practices of 200 organisations, ‘Gaining Ground?’.
Drawing on seven years of annual assessments, we found that important progress has been made, including reaching gender parity among nonprofit board members. But just 2% of nonprofit board seats are held by women from low-income countries.
“The index serves as an important tool, showcasing the use of data to drive structural change, advance action, and hold global health organizations accountable for creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces.”
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
This is Gender
In November, we launched our new platform for the “This is Gender” collection, a vibrant online space showcasing images from visual storytellers around the world that disrupt reductive representations of gender. Each image offers a lens through which to explore the notion of gender in all our lives.
In 2025, we’ll be launching two new calls for images – on disability and on justice – and encourage everyone to get involved.
New Sectors
This year, we began our ambitious expansion into new sectors, including global justice and global finance, building upon our model of research, monitoring and data-driven advocacy. We feel privileged to be leaning into the justice side of this work with an amazing coalition of feminist – particularly global south – organisations as part of the Women in Leadership in Law coalition.
To lead this work, we’re growing the team – and in 2025 will expand even more with the recruitment of new colleagues to guide us through the global finance system (keep an eye on our website for further details in the new year).
As Earth’s natural systems deteriorate, marginalised communities bear the brunt, often excluded from solutions. Our report delves into how gender considerations shape global responses to planetary health crises.
“I and many others were hopeful that the movements for gender justice, climate change and planetary health could be united, yet as this groundbreaking report from Global Health 50/50 and the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health reveals, gender-transformative action remains remarkably absent from most planetary health efforts.”
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, former Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization
The BMJ Special Collection
We published the results of two years of research on women’s leadership in the health sectors in India and Kenya with our partners, the International Center for Research on Women and the African Population Health Research Center, in a special collection of the BMJ.
Please see the collection here, including a paper that explores further opportunities to ensure greater accountability for gender justice commitments and an innovative paper introducing the ‘law cube’ approach to assessing country legal environments for women’s leadership.
Partnerships
Throughout 2024 we proudly strengthened our global presence, forging impactful partnerships and engaging in vital conversations to drive gender equality in health, justice, and beyond. From addressing feminist leadership at the Reykjavík Global Forum – Women Leaders to championing physical activity as a right at the 10th ISPAH Congress in Paris, our voices resonated in spaces where equity matters most. We collaborated with the African HIV Control Working Group to integrate gender into transformative health responses, supported PHM Global at the 5th People’s Health Assembly in Argentina, and co-hosted critical dialogues on gender and planetary health at the CUGH 2024. At the World Health Summit, we met leaders from organisations featured in our annual report, fostering accountability and tangible change. At the UNGA79, we partnered with WomenLift Health, with Helen Clark inspiring us to push for systems of accountability to deliver on gender equality commitments.
We’d like to thank all the people who have contributed to our progress this year: the organisations reviewed in our reports, our research partners, our supporters and collaborators, our secretariat, team of researchers, advisory council and trustees.
We recognise 2025 as a pivotal year for gender justice, marking 30 years since the Beijing world conference on women. The challenges of achieving equality and social justice are immense, but together, we can all make a difference. We look forward to working with and alongside all of you striving for global solidarity in the new year. Until then we send our best wishes to all of you.
