Women spend, on average, 25% more of their lives in poor health than men. Addressing this staggering disparity has the potential to transform not only the health and lives of millions of women but also to supercharge the global economy.
Source: Pexels.
This was the powerful message delivered during the Investing in Women’s Health panel discussion at the 2025 World Economic Forum, moderated by South Africa’s very own Fifi Peters, former host of SAfm Market Update and now senior anchor at CNBC Africa.
Among the distinguished panelists were Bernd Montag, CEO of Siemens Healthineers; Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare; and Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.
The panel’s findings were clear: closing the women’s health gap could not only improve health outcomes for millions but could also inject a staggering $1tn into the global economy annually by 2040. This insight came from the report Closing the Women’s Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity to Improve Lives and Economies.
The discussion began with Anita Zaidi, President of Gender Equality at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who introduced the groundbreaking Women’s Health Impact Tracking (WHIT) Platform. This innovative, publicly accessible tool integrates data from various sources—including government health records, surveys, and health organisations—to track key indicators vital to women’s health.
Data-led action
Launched by The Global Alliance for Women’s Health in collaboration with the McKinsey Health Institute, the WHIT platform aims to provide metrics and insights on nine key conditions: menopause, PMS, endometriosis, maternal hypertensive disorders, post-partum hemorrhage, migraine, ischaemic heart disease, cervical cancer, and breast cancer, the targeted efforts of which will improve global data availability, care delivery, and investment in treatment for specific conditions related to women.
To this end, the data will serve as a valuable resource for researchers to develop innovative treatments, diagnostics, and medical technologies.
It will also motivate stakeholders to take meaningful action, such as creating scalable blueprints for policy adjustments, streamlining resource allocation, and establishing targeted health programmes. This will lead to more effective localised solutions, including screening programmes, education campaigns, and specialised clinics.
Critical gaps in understanding
While specific details regarding the portion of funding allocated exclusively to the WHIT Platform have not been publicly disclosed, $55m in funding has been secured to support various initiatives driven by The Global Alliance for Women’s Health.
Preliminary findings from the research highlight a significant discrepancy: conditions such as PMS, menopause, maternal health issues, cervical cancer, and endometriosis account for 14% of the women’s health burden but have received less than 1% of cumulative research funding allocated to conditions that contribute to the women’s health gap between 2019 and 2023.
The research also reveals that women make up only 22% of phase one clinical trial participants. This lack of representation creates critical gaps in understanding women’s unique health needs, which can lead to misdiagnoses and unsafe treatments.
The data is being collected from 15 countries across various income levels and will continue to expand as the platform evolves.
“Count women, study women”
“The WHIT platform offers a comprehensive framework to help close the women’s health gap: count women, study women, include all women in research and efforts to improve care, and invest in women and girls throughout their lifespan,” said Lucy Pérez, Equity & Health Leader at the McKinsey Health Institute.
“Healthcare investments not only improve quality of life but also boost a country’s GDP by three times the amount invested, particularly in high-income countries. These returns on investment strengthen the business case for improving women’s health and advocating for those who are struggling the most.
“By doing so, we stand to uncover 75 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) annually.”
The launch of the WHIT platform coincided with the release of the second women’s health gap report, Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap: How to Improve Lives and Economies for All.
