PATH releases Gender Strategy 2025

PATH creates gender equity in health by addressing the needs of women, men, and individuals of all gender identities and expressions. We do this by analyzing gender-related barriers to health, implementing gender-equitable solutions, and advancing gender-responsive and transformative innovations.

Addressing the health challenges together with our partners in many different countries means thinking about the social norms, discrimination, unequal distribution of power and resources, and organizational hindrances that undermine health equity—and many of these issues have roots in gender inequality.

Since PATH’s inception more than 40 years ago, we’ve worked to find these gaps and create solutions as part of our commitment to health equity. We’re now sharing a vision that brings together our commitment to gender equity and our readiness to go further as an organization.

PATH’s gender strategy responds to global health challenges that impact gender equality, including the significant effects of climate change and the chronic underinvestment in women’s health. Our commitment to achieving gender equity in health is anchored by our three strategic pillars: integration, influence, and impact.

Each of these priority areas is defined by specific initiatives that will support PATH programs and internal operations to produce tangible, positive outcomes:

• Integration: Integrate gender across people, business practices, and global health programs within our business strategy.
• Influence: Leverage our capabilities to advance women’s leadership, build partnerships that advance gender equity, and influence change in the global health sector.
• Impact: Generate gender-related insights, advance women‘s health innovations, and address gender bias and barriers to improve health outcomes for all.

“According to the United Nations, at the current pace of progress, achieving overall gender equality will take a staggering 286 years. Specifically, women won’t reach equal representation in leadership roles for another 140 years. Even today, the average working woman globally earns 23 percent less than her male counterpart. This is unacceptable! We can’t afford to wait centuries. That’s why dismantling barriers that hinder women’s success in the workplace and society is crucial. Men need to be active participants in this effort. Our gender strategy serves as a roadmap to achieve gender equality by integrating gender equity principles into both PATH’s internal programs and our overall work.”—Levis Nderitu, PATH’s Director of Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“As Chief of the Africa Region, I am thrilled by our 2025 gender strategy. It promises to transform our approach to global health by integrating gender across our business practices and programs. This strategy will advance women in leadership, address gender bias, and improve health outcomes for all, regardless of gender identity. By developing tools for gender integration and generating evidence on health disparities, we are setting a new standard in global health. And as the global sponsor for the Women at PATH People Resource Group, I am particularly inspired by our commitment to gender-inclusive practices that go beyond focusing solely on women and girls. This people-centered, collaborative approach will undoubtedly enhance our impact in Africa and worldwide, ensuring our innovations are truly responsive to the needs of diverse communities.”—Nanthalile Mugala, Chief of the Africa Region.

“At PATH, our vision is clear: a world where everyone gets a fair chance at being healthy, no matter their gender. Through our Gender Strategy 2025, we are dedicated to integrating gender into our operations and programs, influencing change within our organization and across the sector, and driving measurable impact in health outcomes for women, girls, and gender-diverse people. Together, we can overcome gender bias and barriers to ensure equitable health for all.”—Kammerle Schneider, Chief Global Health Programs Officer.

We’ve already created many of the tools, structures, and processes that help bring systematic approaches to addressing gender equity in programming, like our Gender Equity in Programming Glossary, a robust internal gender focal points structure, and ways to assess the gender responsiveness of our project concepts and proposals.

As we continue to deepen our gender integration work, we will roll out new strategic initiatives that leverage our capabilities to advance women’s leadership, expand our partnerships in ways that advance gender equity, and influence change in the global health sector. Our strategy is defined by bold, measurable commitments, and we will be investing further in gender metrics that will help measure progress.

We believe that gender equity is foundational to health equity and essential for achieving the best possible health outcomes for all individuals and communities. By working together to promote gender equity in health, we can create a healthier, more equitable world for everyone.