What Women Want for Economic Empowerment
Listening to the voices of women and girls
is not only a radical act but also a pathway to achieving lasting and transformative improvements in health and wellbeing. Women themselves are best positioned to articulate their priorities, not just for their own health, but for the wellbeing of their families and communities.
The 2019 White Ribbon Alliance Kenya What Women Want (WWW) for Quality Healthcare campaign amplified the voices of more than 127,000 women and girls, who called for respectful maternity care, safe water and sanitation, improved health infrastructure, and economic empowerment as fundamental to realizing their reproductive and maternal health
The exercise revealed a critical truth: women’s ability to access and sustain quality healthcare is inseparable from their financial strength. Without economic empowerment, women struggle to pay for transport to health facilities, afford menstrual and postpartum hygiene products, choose and access family planning methods, or maintain a nutritious diet essential for healthy pregnancies and safe births.
This follow-up What Women Want for Economic Empowerment listening exercise brought forward even deeper insights, underscoring that economic empowerment is not an isolated demand, it is a cornerstone for maternal and newborn health and a determinant of the overall wellbeing of women, their children, and communities at large.
