Global Health 50/50 recently released its 2024 global report entitled Gaining Ground? The report analyzes the gender-related policies and practices of over 200 global health organizations that wield immense influence, control billions of dollars annually, and shape global discourse on social and political priorities. The report provides a critical examination of the organizations’ leadership and power landscape in their pursuit of gender equality, and it sheds light on significant progress and persistent challenges that remain to achieve gender equality.

In the report, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is categorized as a high performer, with a trend in consistently strong performance each year since 2021. This categorization reflects NIH's commitment to transparent policies and measures to advance gender equality.

Drawing on seven years of annual assessments, and, for the first time, reviewing data for the non-profit and for-profit sectors separately, the report’s key findings include:

• Women hold 51% of nonprofits’ board chairs compared to 30% in 2018, which is a show of parity; however, only 2% of those women are from low-income countries and 17% of nonprofit board chairs are occupied by men from the United States.  
• Women remain vastly underrepresented on for-profit boards governed by member state representatives, and male chief executive officers in United States-based nongovernmental organizations annually earn, on average, 28% more than their female counterparts.

These disparities highlight the urgent need for diversity and inclusion at the highest levels of decision-making. Gaining Ground? calls for urgent structural changes and rigorous accountability to foster inclusive, equitable, and effective global health organizations.  

Read the report.