Empowering women’s health through policy and innovation in West Africa

Overview - Empowering Women’s Health Through Policy and Innovation

Empowering women’s health involves equipping women and girls with the tools to make informed decisions about their well-being. This includes access to education, decision-making power, medical care, and healthcare resources. Driving change through policy requires increased R&D funding, incentivising innovation, fostering cross-sector partnerships, and investing in female researchers to lead the healthcare field. Notable advancements include self-administered family planning tools, single-dose HPV vaccines, and AI-powered cancer diagnostics.

WHX Lagos and WHX Labs Lagos, scheduled to take place in Nigeria from June 2-4, 2025, aim to highlight transformative innovations alongside holistic approaches to improving women’s health. The event’s theme, 'Innovation and Technological Change in the Digital Age for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment,' underscores its commitment to advancing healthcare for women and girls through cutting-edge solutions as well as collaboration.

The Current Landscape of Women’s Health in West Africa

Women’s health in West Africa stands at a pivotal moment, with progress as well as challenges defining key areas such as maternal health, reproductive health, mental health, nutrition, and cancer.

Maternal Health: The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest maternal and child mortality rates globally, accounting for 70% of all maternal fatalities. Amidst these challenges, investing in maternal plus child health can reduce the mortality rate and open economic opportunities. Innovative interventions like Heat- Stable Carbetocin for postpartum haemorrhage prevention in low- resource settings like Sierra Leone have saved lives in the region.

Reproductive Health: Youth-focused initiatives in West African countries address reproductive health challenges. Comprehensive sexuality education, peer education, cash transfers, mass media campaigns, and youth-friendly centres aim to empower the youth. MSI Reproductive Choices, through the UK-funded Women’s Integrated Sexual Health 2 Lot 1 project, has delivered essential sexual plus reproductive healthcare services to millions across six West and Central African countries.

Mental Health: Socioeconomic, cultural, along with security challenges heighten adolescent mental health concerns. Addressing these issues demands policies, robust guidelines, and capacity-building efforts. Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Niger offer valuable insights into adolescent mental health research, reflecting diverse socio-cultural contexts plus healthcare systems.

Cancer in Women: West African women face high cancer risks, particularly cervical and breast cancer. The region reports the second- highest breast cancer incidence in Africa, with aggressive triple-negative breast cancer prevalence exceeding 40%. Cervical cancer remains the second most common cancer among women, with an incidence of 13.9 per 100,000 and a mortality rate of 9.4 per 100,000. These alarming statistics underline the urgent need for targeted interventions.

Source: hpvcentre.net : Human Papillomavirus and Related Cancers, Fact Sheet 2023

Challenges and Opportunities to Advancing Women’s Health

Healthcare Resources and Digital Infrastructure: A shortfall of well-equipped facilities and trained personnel, particularly in rural areas, has impeded the effectiveness of healthcare service delivery in West African countries. Digital innovations such as telemedicine offer potential solutions. However, such innovations need to be backed with high-speed internet connectivity and digital literacy rates for widespread adoption.

Gabbi Health Nigeria provides EHR platform / TeleHealth services for healthcare providers, enhancing practice management, patient communication, plus data access.

Socioeconomic Barriers and Social Media: West Africa faces challenges in women's health empowerment due to structural issues in public facilities such as a lack of gender-responsive infrastructure. Smart technologies like mobile apps can overcome geographical barriers plus provide information on women’s health covering contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. For instance, the Women's Health and Education Programme in Nigeria uses social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to disseminate reproductive health content, which fosters personal connections in addition to sharing vital information.

The Role of Policy in Advancing Women’s Health

Public-Private and Multilateral Partnerships have emerged as key drivers of change. Nigeria's federal government's partnership with Siemens Healthineers has improved cancer care through advanced technology and training. The Ouagadougou Partnership aims to double contraceptive users in Francophone West Africa to 13 million by 2030.

Coalition for Women’s Health in Africa (COWHA) advocates for equitable healthcare plus optimal well-being for women and girls. It integrates private and non-state actors to support health equity initiatives.

GrOW–West Africa Initiative fosters gender equality and economic empowerment in the region. It supports countries in rebuilding socio-economic systems post-COVID-19 and preparing for a low-carbon economy.

African Women in Digital Health (AWiDH) initiative championed digital health policies centered on women’s well-being. It focuses on apacity building and female entrepreneurship. Badienou Gokh Initiative strengthens maternal and child health through training women as community health leaders. Women in Healthcare Network (WIHCN) focuses on gender equality and skill enhancement in the healthcare sector.

The other policies include:

• Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Ghana deliver essential services such as immunisation, health education, and family planning, which bridge gaps in primary care.
• The Regional Contraceptive Early Warning System manages contraceptive stock data across ECOWAS countries to prevent shortages.
• The WHO’s 90-70-90 targets aim to improve HPV vaccination, cervical cancer screening, and treatment.
• ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women’s Health allocates USD 100 million to research and innovation in women’s health.

These strategic policies and partnerships demonstrate how focused investment and collaboration empower women’s health in West Africa, creating pathways for sustainable progress and equality.

Gaps and Recommendations for Improvement

The women’s health gap stems from four critical factors: insufficient understanding of biological differences, systematic underestimation of health issues, barriers to service delivery, and inadequate investment in preventive care. These disparities vary across regions and income levels, deeply impacting women’s health, education, and economic opportunities.

Family Planning: Access to family planning remains a significant challenge in West Africa. Only 13% of married women aged 15-49 use any form of family planning. Barriers include limited information, fear of side effects, cultural norms, and inadequate healthcare infrastructure. Policy constraints plus insufficient funding further compound the issue. The lack of access affects women’s health, educational attainment, and economic empowerment, perpetuating a cycle of poverty as well as inequality.

Reproductive Health Care: Systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain fragile, with high maternal mortality ratios accounting for 94% of global maternal deaths. Financial barriers prevent many women from accessing necessary healthcare services.

Interventions like the Strategic Cooperation Agreement between the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and GE HealthCare show promise. In Nigeria, GE HealthCare has introduced eight portable Vscan ultrasound devices to enhance maternal and fetal outcomes, offering a model for scalable solutions in similar contexts.

Adolescent Girls: Adolescent girls in West Africa face unique challenges, which includes limited access to resources, financial institutions, and decision-making opportunities.

Women's Health Gap Action Plan – Recommendations

• Prioritise research on underdiagnosed conditions affecting women
• Enhance data collection and reporting for accurate health insights
• Expand access to women-specific healthcare services
• Promote investment in women’s health innovations and new funding models
• Adapt policies, medical training, and workplaces to support women's health
• Foster multi-sectoral collaboration for a holistic ecosystem approach
• Drive private equity and venture capital funding into FemTech start-ups
• Highlight women's health investment as a high-ROI initiative boosting workforce participation and quality of life

Healthcare Innovations Transforming Women’s Health

Movements for equality and empowerment have underscored the need to address disparities in women’s health. In West Africa, advancements in digital health technologies can improve healthcare access, provide real- time symptom tracking, and empower women to make informed decisions.

Improving Access to Healthcare: West Africa’s healthcare strategy focuses on increasing government health expenditure, which enhances infrastructure, upgrades medical equipment, attracts skilled professionals, fosters research plus innovation, and enacts legislation to make healthcare more affordable as well as accessible.

For instance, PPC Healthcare in partnership with Neusoft Medical introduced the Neuviz 64 Multislice CT scanner in Nigeria, providing advanced imaging, faster scans, lower radiation doses, and cost-effective solutions.

Providing Essential Health Information: Digital health solutions offer critical information on contraceptives, HIV self-testing, self-managed abortion, and medication. Digital Health Interventions (DHIs) expand access to care, improve outcomes in sexual as well as reproductive health, and ensure telemedicine counselling.

Improving Maternal Health and Reducing Mortality Rates: Digital health solutions transform maternal healthcare by improving access to services, facilitating communication, and empowering women, particularly in underserved regions. These innovations address critical factors such as pre-existing medical conditions, stress, environmental exposure, obesity, and breastfeeding, ensuring better outcomes for mothers plus newborns.

Technologies like telemedicine, mobile health apps, plus wireless fetal dopplers play a pivotal role in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates. They enhance health management, provide personalised care, as well as enable real-time monitoring of critical conditions. These tools minimise the need for travel, which ensures consistent care and reduces risks associated with delayed interventions.

In Ghana, the Mobile Midwife initiative highlights the impact of these technologies. This programme delivers essential maternal health guidance and remote monitoring services, which significantly lowers mortality rates in remote areas. By equipping women with vital knowledge plus enabling early detection of complications, it ensures timely medical interventions and safer pregnancies.

From groundbreaking advancements in medical technology to strategies for improving healthcare access across the continent, WHX Lagos and WHX Labs Lagos event aims to bridge the digital gender gap by establishing a multidisciplinary platform that brings together health stakeholders to promote women's engagement and leadership in digital health. Its strategic objectives include capacity building, supporting women's entrepreneurship in digital health, and ensuring adequate investment for women entrepreneurs in the tech digital health space. This will help build a strong talent pipeline and ensure effective collaboration.

Bridging the Gap Through Partnerships and Investments

Advancing women’s health in West Africa requires robust partnerships and targeted investments. Several organisations lead efforts to transform healthcare systems and address systemic inequalities, contributing to improved outcomes for women across the region.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) strengthens maternal and child nutrition practices in Niger, driving critical health improvements. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invests in global health research with a focus on diseases that disproportionately affect women. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation enhances health, nutrition, plus agriculture in Africa through strategic funding and scientific expertise.

The Challenge Initiative focuses on reducing inequality in Francophone West Africa by tackling poverty and addressing Sustainable Development Goals. Women’s Aid Collective, Women’s Consortium of Nigeria, and the Women’s Rights and Development Centre work to advocate for gender-based healthcare solutions. The Association of African Women for Research and Development promotes female-driven research to empower women as well as influence policy.

These organisations collaborate with governments to integrate gender-based approaches into healthcare systems, ensuring equitable access and resources for women. Their efforts underline the importance of collective action in addressing the unique health challenges faced by women across West Africa.

Investments

The Sahel Women's Empowerment and Demographic Dividend (SWEDD) Project, funded by the World Bank, addresses critical issues such as child marriage, teenage pregnancy, and early school dropouts across Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. The initiative supports community- based clubs, promotes secondary school retention for girls, as well as enhances access to reproductive and maternal healthcare.

The Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening (HOPE- PHC) Programme, backed by USD 570 million under the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, focuses on improving reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health. It aims to lower maternal plus under-five mortality rates and enhance healthcare resilience.

The Guinea Enhancing Health System Transformation (GUEST) Project, supported by USD 95 million from the World Bank, modernises health services in Guinea. It strengthens reproductive, maternal, and adolescent healthcare, upgrades health facilities, addresses climate change impacts, plus updates the civil status system.

Moving Forward: Seizing Meaningful Change

Women’s health is fundamental to societal well-being, shaping families, communities, and economies. Progress requires a holistic approach that prioritises equitable access to care, addresses disparities, and invests in impactful solutions. By bridging knowledge gaps, improving healthcare delivery, and expanding access to diagnostics plus therapies, we can advance the health and well-being of women across West Africa.

A redefined perspective on women’s health must include biological, social, and gender variables, embracing inclusiveness for all individuals. Empowering women with access to quality care enables informed decision- making, resilience, plus opportunities for education along with economic participation. Healthier mothers build stronger households and foster thriving societies. Collaboration across sectors is essential to drive innovation, amplifying women’s voices in research as well as development, in addition to ensuring accessible and ethical healthcare solutions. Policies that promote innovation, incentivise investment, and foster regulatory support can sustain these advancements.