Gender justice and health equity are inextricably linked but are programmes linked?
The Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health launched a new report in April 2025 on "achieving gender justice for global health equity" in Delhi, India. The report reflects how a lack of understanding of the link between gender and health is negatively affecting health outcomes.
The report makes a very valid point that achieving gender justice in global health encompasses the realisation of universal rights in relation to health equity and gender equality, while also addressing the drivers of gender-based discrimination and exclusion. This would improve health outcomes, reduce health inequities, and ensure more inclusive and equitable global health workplaces and workforce governance for all people. This also happens to be a core focus of SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity & Rights) initiative.
But despite promises made by our governments to deliver on both, gender equality and health, progress is off track: "We are not on track to realise the right to health and gender equality. Despite committing to Agenda 2030 with a common vision and work plan, we are not doing well on delivering on the promises of UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health in a SHE & Rights session hosted last month.
The Lancet Commission report comes at a very timely moment - right on the heels of the recently concluded 69th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), and ahead of the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF 2025). Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and Goal 5 (Gender Equality) will be under review at HLPF 2025.
The Lancet Commission report also alerts us to the rising tide of anti-gender rhetoric and rollback of gender rights which is impacting health policies and gender equity.
Gender misunderstandings have resulted in unequal health outcomes
Indrani Gupta, one of the commissioners of The Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health, and Head of the Health Policy Research Unit, Institute of Economic Growth, said at the report launch: "Misunderstandings of gender have contributed to unequal health outcomes and we urgently need to tackle the gap in research, ideas and action on gender in global health. In India we have to guard against any backsliding in the progress we have made in understanding gender and health, especially in the context of a global wave towards an anti-gender view of the world."
Three main biases in relation to gender exist even in the global health sector, that have resulted in misdirected actions. These are:
- Gender and sex can be used interchangeably. While sex and gender can influence each other in various ways, they are not interchangeable terms;
- Gender relates only to women and girls. Health policy makers often use gender as shorthand for talking about women and girls rather than gender as a relational construct;
- Gender has little effect on most health outcomes. The global health community tends to overlook the role of gender in health outcomes, except in relation to the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls. However gender affects health outcomes across a broad range of conditions, including infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, mental health disorders, and injuries.