Global health and gender report launched

It will take over 50 years to achieve gender parity among the top leaders in global health, according to a new report co-led by UCL. The report, which released its findings on International Women's Day, is published by Global Health 50/50, an iniative based at the UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health  and  co-founded and co-directed by UCL Professor Sarah Hawkes and Dr Kent Buse,  Strategic Policy Directions, UNAIDS. Power, Privilege and Priorities  a nalyses  the leadership breakdown of the world's top 200 global health bodies including funders, NGOs and corporate organisations. and  shows that although women make up 70% of workers in the global health sector, only 5% of leadership positions are occupied by women from lowand middle-income countries. In addition, nine out of ten global organisations working on health are based in rich countries - primarily the US, UK and Switzerland. "We see a number of major issues that prohibit the global health system from achieving gender equality and health for all," said Professor Hawkes ( UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health) . "This is partly because our global health system has not shaken the vestiges of its colonial past - an age of empires which saw a small number of countries controlling the direction of medical research and service deliver . " We also see a mismatch between the biggest causes of death and ill-health and  the priorities of global health organisations.