Happy International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025!
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a progressive blueprint of commitments to advance women’s rights globally. In the past 30 years, policies supporting these commitments have allowed women to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive well-being, reduced gender bias, and enabled women’s political representation.
Even with this progress, a world where all women and girls enjoy comprehensive rights without socio-economic barriers holding back their empowerment remains an aspirational dream yet to be realized. In 2023, the United Nations found that 35 percent of women between 15-49 years of age have experienced physical and/ or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence, whereas 1 in 3 girls aged 15-19 has experienced female genital mutilation in 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East. In Africa, the African Union found that gender and its intersecting inequalities directly increase the risk and vulnerability to HIV for women and girls in Africa. In Asia, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) identified persistent challenges to women’s and girls’ health and well-being, such as the partial implementation of policies and programs, insufficient resources, lack of specialized services, barriers to access and health sectors that are not entirely gender-sensitive.
Furthermore, the momentum to achieve comprehensive rights for women is stalled by anti-rights movements, threatening to repeal the gains we have made to achieve bodily autonomy for all women and desensitizing against vices such as female genital mutilation (FGM), gender-based violence, and child marriages. Alarming attempts to repeal the ban against FGM, reducing the age of consent for marriage, and restricting access to sexual and reproductive health and rights set a dangerous precedent for harmful practices.
“The rise of anti-rights movements underscores the urgency. To counter backlash, health programming must boldly integrate gender literacy into its DNA. Let’s design *with*, not *for*: host community-led workshops to redefine cultural narratives, leverage digital platforms to safely elevate marginalized perspectives, and train health workers to challenge – not accommodate – harmful norms.” HCDExchange Community Member
Addressing these threats to secure equality, rights, and empowerment for all women and girls is possible if development sector actors, advocacy groups, policy advisors, and government representatives can work collaboratively towards a shared goal. At HCDExchange, we asked our Community of Practitioners how the development sector can provide equitable opportunities for all individuals to succeed. Below are some of the examples that were shared:
Adoption of people-centered solutions. Communities have a deeper understanding of their challenges and are better placed to provide responsive solutions.
“True gender transformation requires more than “inclusion.” It demands centering the lived experiences of women, girls, and gender-diverse communities in the design of health systems. HCD’s core strength and its focus on empathy and co-creation can amplify voices often sidelined by top-down approaches.”
“It takes structural adjustments, significant involvement, and a persistent dedication to removing obstacles to provide equitable possibilities. The development sector can pave the road for everyone, not just a wealthy select few, to prosper by emphasizing community-driven, inclusive, and data-informed initiatives.”
A shift toward intersectional implementation of programs. Communities’ most pressing challenges do not appear independently of each other. Programs should reflect this integration.
“The pursuit of health equity cannot be divorced from the fight for gender justice. While strides have been made in global health, systemic gender inequalities – from skewed power dynamics in decision-making to the exclusion of marginalized voices, continue to undermine interventions meant to serve all. Human-centered design (HCD) offers a critical pathway to bridge this gap, but only if we wield it intentionally to dismantle, not reinforce, the status quo.”
Leveraging HCD to implement people-centered programs is a good step forward. However, as an approach, HCD is not a magic bullet. There has to be an intentional commitment to pairing HCD strategies with evidence-based approaches to address challenges effectively.
“HCD alone is not a panacea. Without confronting the structural biases embedded in health systems – such as patriarchal norms or inequitable resource allocation – even the most participatory solutions risk becoming performative. We must pair HCD with advocacy for policy shifts, funding for gender-responsive research, and accountability mechanisms that hold institutions to their commitments.”
This year’s IWD 2025 theme – ‘Accelerate Action’ – is a timely topic coinciding with the sixth review of the commitments outlined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to determine progress and areas of improvement. Moreover, there are only 5 years remaining to meet the indicators outlined in the Vision 2030 goals, the majority of which are off-track. Beyond this day, we call on practitioners to continue working toward dismantling systemic inequalities entrapping women and girls and take action to achieve inclusion and equality.
“Inclusive spaces thrive when we recognize diversity as a catalyst for innovation, not a checkbox. The global health community must move beyond tokenism and commit to redistributing power – because equity isn’t a “feature” of health systems, it is the foundation.”
Footnotes:-
Gender equality and women’s empowerment, United Nations, 2023
Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and HIV in Africa: The impact of intersecting issues and key continental priorities, African Union
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Asia and the Pacific: Perspectives of Governments on 20 Years of Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, ESCAP
