I was pleased to attend the UNFPA & Bayer, United Nations General Assembly 80 Event, Partnerships of the Future: The Role of the Private Sector in Advancing Women’s Health – Spotlight on Menopause.

It was a pleasure to see Executive Director Diene Keita, whose leadership in elevating menopause to the centre of the global women’s health agenda is deeply commendable. As UNFPA highlights in its new report Spotlight: Building Menopause-Friendly Workplaces, by 2030 more than one billion women will be postmenopausal. Yet most workplaces remain unequipped to support their health, wellbeing, and contributions. This gap perpetuates stigma, economic loss, and systemic exclusion, precisely when women in their menopausal years are among the fastest growing segments of the global workforce.

The creation of the UNFPA-led Coalition for Reproductive Justice in Business is a vital step forward. By engaging the private sector, the Coalition builds shared responsibility for embedding reproductive health, from menarche through post-menopause, into organisational policies and practices. This approach affirms that reproductive justice is inseparable from workplace equity, retention, and productivity.

The task before us is to co-design frameworks and metrics that embed menopause within sexual and reproductive health and rights. This requires aligning menopause with ESG standards, inclusion indices, and global accountability frameworks, ensuring that investment in women’s midlife health is measurable, reportable, and transformative.

I welcome this renewed commitment to partnerships that dismantle stigma, advance rights, and foster workplaces where women thrive at every stage of life.

 

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