Global Health Trainee, Dr Alice Beardmore-Gray, reflects on the RCOG’s attendance at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva from 19 – 22 May. The RCOG delegation also included Nia Sheppard (RCOG Senior Global Programmes Manager) and Dr Michalina Drejza (Chair of the Global Health Trainees’ Committee).
What is the WHA?
The WHA is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), bringing together health ministers and delegates from all 194 WHO member states to set global health policies and priorities. Non-Government organisations (NGOs) and civil society organizations attend to advocate for key issues and influence discussions through side events, statements, and networking with policymakers.
The RCOG attendance at the WHA served to provide the College with a detailed overview of priorities at the WHO and a valuable opportunity to strengthen our clinical perspective while actively connecting with the global community focused on women's health and rights.
Why global policy matters for women’s health
We are living through a time of immense transition, grappling with climate change, ongoing conflict, and a shifting geopolitical landscape. These forces are threatening hard-won gains in women’s rights and eroding the already scarce funding available for women’s health.
Although our day-to-day clinical work may feel far removed from international negotiations taking place at WHO headquarters, the decisions made at this level ultimately shape our working environments, influence clinical practice, and affect our patients.
That’s why it is more important than ever to understand and engage with the broader global context in which we strive to protect and improve women’s health. As obstetricians and gynaecologists, part of our role is to act as advocates — not only in the clinic, but in conversations that shape global policy.
Key insights from WHA side events
We were fortunate to attend a wide range of WHA side events in Geneva. These spaces offered important insight into how funding landscapes are shifting – and why progress in many areas of women’s health, such as maternal mortality, is stalling.
I came away with three key themes:
1. Turning challenge into opportunity
A definite highlight was attending the launch of the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing. This was a powerful call to action: if we neglect adolescents, we are neglecting the future.
Every year, more than 20 million girls aged 15-19 will become pregnant – and half of those pregnancies are unwanted. This renewed my own personal commitment to ensure that we take proactive steps to include adolescents (who face some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world) in pregnancy research. This set the scene for a fantastic interactive workshop led by Michalina Drejza the following day around meaningful inclusion of adolescents and youth in the development of the WHO abortion care guideline and its implementation.
We also heard from WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus who spoke candidly about the challenges faced by the WHO, and the critical funding gap. He presented this as an opportunity to return to the core values of the organisation and shape a more independent WHO, moving away from an aid-dependency mindset. The NHS faces similar challenges and often feels constrained by budget deficits and bureaucratic processes. By viewing these challenges as opportunities, we can shape the future of these organisations and develop our own solutions so that they work better for us, and for the communities we serve.
2. The need for strong female leadership
At the Women in Global Health Leadership Spotlight on Health event, there was an impressive panel including the Rt. Hon. Helen Clark who presented findings from their annual review of gender representation in multilateral organisations.
Recent research on the impact of women’s leadership in the health sector found that women leaders positively influence organisation and health outcomes, driving improvements in financial performance, innovation, workforce wellbeing and increase engagement with ethical and sustainability initiatives. But despite women comprising 70% of the global health workforce, only 25% hold leadership roles — and in the 77 years since WHO’s founding, only two women have served as Director-General.
Women’s low representation in global health leadership is driven by interrelated societal, organisational and individual barriers, rooted in systems that have been built by men, for men. Future and current leaders need strong support systems and intentional action help to change this. These include access to networking, mentoring and peer support, alongside policies that enforce gender equity and broader organisational culture change.
As a College, we should continue to make sure that we are at the forefront of driving an increase in representation of women in health leadership positions, and championing specific measures such as equal parental leave, flexible work arrangements and ensuring balanced gender representation in recruitment and appointment structures. As individuals, we must support each other to promote and encourage female leadership within our own institutional structures and create peer networks and mentoring opportunities to enable the path towards leadership.
3. The importance of working together
One of the key benefits to attending WHA, was being able to play a small part in bridging the gaps between different disciplines. Whilst many of the spaces felt somewhat unfamiliar, listening to development experts, politicians, financial foundations, academics and NGOs emphasised how important it is to reach beyond the familiar and engage other sectors of society.
By attending such events, the RCOG has an opportunity to highlight the experiences of frontline healthcare providers, and amplify the voices of women. Only by doing so, can we hope to engage those in positions of power, and hold them to account. We must also work together to improve our scientific communication, ensuring that clinical research findings can be translated into real-world impact, beyond just academic publications and into tangible patient benefit.
This requires stepping out of our usual comfort zones, co-creating research with communities, and working alongside other professionals to bring about real, meaningful change.
Conclusion: prioritising progress in Women’s Health
As a College, we can, and should, leverage the power of our international membership, our clinical expertise and our passion, to make sure that women’s health remain at the forefront of the international agenda, and I look forward to seeing the RCOG continue to expand its role in this arena.