In this week’s special edition of the This Week in Global Development podcast, we explore how investing in women’s health is not just a health issue — it’s about power, agency, and opportunity. 

Women spend 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, due to underfunded research, diagnostic biases, and policies that fail to prioritize their needs. The result: Llimits on women’s ability to lead, work, and participate fully in society.

Hosted in partnership with Pivotal Ventures, Devex Executive Editor Kate Warren speaks with Haven Ley, chief strategy officer at Pivotal Ventures, and Cecilia Conrad, CEO of Lever for Change, about how reimagining women’s health care can reshape opportunity for entire communities.
Their conversation highlights Action for Women’s Health — a $250 million global open call launched by Pivotal Ventures and Lever for Change to identify and fund community-driven solutions that improve women’s mental and physical health. The initiative drew over 4,000 applications from 119 countries, surfacing innovations in areas from maternal and mental health to menopause and caregiving.

As global aid declines and funding for women’s health remains scarce, Ley and Conrad argue that this bottom-up, participatory funding model offers a more equitable way to center women’s voices and needs. Their message: the ideas and solutions already exist — what’s needed now is more capital and commitment to bring them to scale.