What WHA78 Exposed About Power, Resistance, and the Future of Feminist Global Health

Women Deliver convened feminist organizations, Member States, and multilateral institutions to discuss the impact of current threats to multilateralism and underscore the vital role of spaces like the WHA and institutions like the the WHO in countering anti-rights and anti-gender movements while advancing on critical global health goals.

By Kinza Hasan, Manager, Policy and Advocacy, Women Deliver

We live in a time of compounding global crises — climate disasters, economic instability, shrinking aid, rising authoritarianism, and calculated efforts to roll back international norms. These pressures are exposing deep — and deliberate — flaws within global systems like international financing, health governance, and development.

This isn’t a crisis of technical capacity — it’s a crisis of political will, deeply rooted in structural inequities. Global health systems are a prime example. They were never designed to be fair or inclusive. From their foundations, they have prioritized the interests of wealthy nations, upheld male-dominated leadership, and centered institutions based in the Global North — while systematically excluding those most affected: adolescent girls, women, and gender-diverse people from the Global Majority.

The 78th World Health Assembly (WHA78) was no exception. While “Health for all” remains an aspiration, the reality at WHA78 revealed persistent political resistance, ideological backlash, and systemic exclusion. Attempts to marginalize gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) underscored the critical role feminist advocates play in protecting and expanding global spaces. Women Deliver actively engaged through statements, side events, and strategic bilateral meetings, ensuring these crucial issues remained visible on the agenda.

Despite these efforts, the reality remains that gender equality and SRHR are consistently deprioritized within WHA processes. Like many global spaces, WHA does not provide clear, transparent avenues for civil society engagement in resolution development. As a result, the path toward explicitly prioritizing gender equality and SRHR at WHA is uncertain, underscoring the urgent need to advocate persistently for these critical issues.

Women Deliver’s Strategic Feminist Engagement at WHA78

WHA78 was not merely a technical meeting — it remains a political space where global norms, rights, and power structures are contested. The limited formal agenda space allocated to gender equality and SRHR highlighted broader patterns of neglect in global health governance.

Anticipating these challenges, Women Deliver partnered with Norway, UNFPA, IPPF, PMNCH, and HRP to co-host a high-level dialogue on gender equality and SRHR accountability. Dr. Eden Mebrahtu, Women Deliver Emerging Leader and SRHR Program Analyst at UNFPA Ethiopia, powerfully brought national-level realities to the global stage.

During the side event “Global Commitments, Collective Action: Supporting the WHO’s Commitment to Gender and SRHR”, Dr. Mebrahtu drew on her experience as a physician during the Tigray conflict to urge multilateral institutions to move beyond condemnation — calling instead for investment in communities as the architects of their own solutions, and youth as the architects of their futures. She emphasized the urgent need to prioritize continued access to sexual and reproductive health services for girls and women in crisis contexts.

She emphasized how policy debates often ignore lived experience — especially the structural and social barriers adolescent girls face in accessing SRHR. From stigma around contraception to a lack of youth-friendly services and missing gender- and age-disaggregated data, she made it impossible to ignore why young people must be engaged not just as participants, but as policy and governance partners in all global spaces. Eden expressed these critical points across three panels and multiple bilateral meetings with Member States.

Beyond this dialogue, Women Deliver also co-convened a high-level side event with UHC2030, PMNCH, CSEM, and Women in Global Health — bringing together governments, civil society, and youth advocates. The conversation laid bare the ways gender-blind health systems continue to fail marginalized communities and called for gender-transformative approaches to governance, financing, and service delivery. One clear message echoed across the room: progress demands a redistribution of power and resources.

Finally, Women Deliver led a gender and SRHR constituency statement alongside nine partners, declaring unequivocally:

“There is no universal health coverage without gender justice and comprehensive SRHR.”

These interventions took place against a backdrop of broader political tensions. Member States debated the approval of the Draft Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health, facing pushback from oil-producing countries attempting to delay adoption and from some Global North states over language on “common but differentiated responsibilities.” The Pandemic Agreement — years in the making — faced renewed contention around equitable systems for sharing pathogen information. And while the latest attempt to restrict civil society participation did not succeed, the threat remains ongoing.

It’s Time to Rewrite the Rules

When gender equality and SRHR are deprioritized in global spaces like WHA, it reinforces the idea that these rights are optional. This can lead governments to overlook the health needs of adolescent girls, women, and gender-diverse people. These omissions are not neutral — they uphold long-standing systems of inequality rooted in colonialism, patriarchy, neoliberalism, and capitalism. Adolescent girls are particularly affected, facing harmful laws, stigma, misinformation, and exclusion from decisions that directly impact their health. Addressing these gaps requires targeted, inclusive, and rights-based solutions.

Our global health advocacy demands feminist systems that are:

• People-centered and rights-based: Recognizing health and SRHR as fundamental human rights.
• Intersectional: Addressing how race, class, age, gender identity, and other factors influence health outcomes.
• Gender-transformative: Actively dismantling harmful norms and practices.
• Decolonized: Redistributing power, leadership, and resources to historically marginalized communities.
• Climate-responsive: Connecting health with environmental justice and climate resilience.

Moving Forward: Reinventing Multilateralism, Reclaiming Power

WHA78 underscored both the fragility — and the necessity — of multilateral spaces. Despite their flaws, institutions like the World Health Organization remain vital for global health governance, norm- and standard-setting, and collective accountability.

In a world where multilateralism is under attack, feminist advocates have a vital role to play in protecting global spaces, pushing for meaningful civil society engagement, and resisting the rising tide of anti-rights narratives. Because accountability doesn’t come from podium promises — it’s built through movement-building, youth organizing, and relentless pressure from civil society.

This moment demands more than resistance. It demands reinvention.

WHA78 reaffirmed the importance of feminist global health advocacy. The path forward isn’t fast or easy. But it is possible when we act strategically, in solidarity, and with a bold, shared vision for the world we want.

Women Deliver will continue to advocate for global health systems that reflect the realities and uphold the rights of adolescent girls, women, and gender-diverse people, especially those from the Global Majority — because what’s at stake is far more than global policy.

It’s lives. It’s dignity. It’s futures. And that will always be worth fighting for.