By 2030, the Gates Foundation will spend $ 2.5 billion on women’s health, said it on Monday, in which founder Bill Gates said that the area, including pre -eclampsia for menopause, had been neglected too long.
The investment is one of the first major obligations since Gates announced earlier this year that he would give away his Fortuin of $ 200 billion by 2045. It is about a third more than the foundation that has spent over the past five years on research and development of women and mother’s health.
“The health of women is still ignored, under -financed and sidelined. Too many women are still dying due to causes or living in poor health,” Gates said in a statement. “That must change.”
The work will look at deeply undervalued areas that influence hundreds of millions of women in both countries with high and low incomes, from pre-eclampsia and maternity diabetes to heavy menstrual periods, endometriosis and menopause.
Investments will focus on five important areas: obstetric care and immunization of mothers; Maternal health and nutrition; gynecological and menstrual health; contraception innovation; And sexually transmitted infections.
The aim is to start research, to develop products and to guarantee fair access to it worldwide.
The head of gender equality of the foundation, Dr. Anita Zaidi, said that the field had been partially stopped due to bias and a lack of data on important issues, such as how drugs cross the uterus.
“If you look at the literature, there may ever be 10 women who have ever been studied,” she said Reuters. “We don’t even have the answers to these basic questions.”
Only one percent of the expenditure for research and innovation of health care went to female specific circumstances that go beyond cancer, an analysis of 2021 by McKinsey & Co.
Zaidi acknowledged that the $ 2.5 billion was a “drop in the bucket” compared to what was needed and called on others to step in, including the private sector, philanthropes and governments.
The ex-wife of Gates, philanthropist Melinda French Gates, has also invested in women’s health since leaving the foundation last year.
