2019/2020 Annual Report
4 March 2021
Members of the WGH Community, Supporters, and Allies,
Words cannot capture the immensity of the challenges we faced as a world in 2020. As a physician, I have seen the suffering of hospital wards this year, and how COVID-19 has devastated the world, exposing deep inequalities within and between countries. The pandemic has left women to bear the biggest impacts of the pandemic as shock absorbers in families, communities and societies. This gender inequality we have seen in the health and social workforce is one of those longstanding inequalities that weakens health systems everywhere, especially during a pandemic.
But our community, the Women in Global Health movement, has been on the pandemic frontlines working and advocating.
2020 was a milestone year for our movement, as we celebrated 5 years since four early-career women met on Twitter and decided to form Women in Global Health, determined to catalyze change.
Having run our global movement on volunteer ‘woman power’ for four years, in 2020 we raised funds to support a small staff and a new 5-year strategy committed to challenging power and privilege for gender equity in global health.
Our organizational development from 2019 to 2020 was our largest growth yet, receiving the first of several grants and additional funding sources, hiring our first team of paid full-time staff, and groundbreaking new research and events that have influenced policy and engaged high-level global health leaders. In 2020 alone, we have increased from 12 to 24 global chapters, widening our global reach and expanding from the policy level to grassroots engagement, including engaging with national governments and directly influencing policy change.
This year, we will channel our energies into expanding our work and deepening our impact. The voices of talented women leaders in global health have not always been heard during COVID-19 – we will focus on fixing systems and not women – we will demand more opportunities for women, especially women from underrepresented groups. And we will create more opportunities for women to lead change, through our national chapters and working groups.
COVID-19 is a global wake-up call, including for WGH. It is now time for a new social contract for all women. This next year, we plan to learn and grow with all of you by mobilizing global chapters, garnering commitment, holding leaders accountable, and advocating for change. You are the movement. When we work together we can transform global health and achieve a gender-equal world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Roopa Dhatt, Executive Director
