Earlier this week, on World Health Day, I was honoured to deliver the keynote address at the McKinsey Roundtable on Closing the Women’s Health Gap in Africa, convened by the McKinsey Health Institute in Lagos, where we gathered with a resolute call to action, drawn from the powerful findings of the Closing the Women’s Health Gap report, a transformative $1 trillion opportunity by 2040, co-developed with the World Economic Forum.

As a long-standing contributor to the McKinsey Health Institute’s consultation process, and in my role as a World Economic Forum Champion of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health, I shared frontline insights from my Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s people-centred, equity-driven and evidence-based programming, which serves as a real-world model of inclusive and impactful care.

Reflecting on the 2025 report, Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap: How to Improve Lives and Economies for All, and its five-pillar framework, which calls on us to count women, study women, care for women, include all women and invest in women, I was proud to illustrate through the work of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, a homegrown and scalable roadmap which Nigeria and the African continent are uniquely positioned to lead, with every policy, practice and partnership anchored in dignity, data and decisive action.

Women worldwide live 25% more of their lives in poor health than men, a stark and systemic inequity that must no longer be tolerated, accepted or ignored. This is not merely a women’s issue; it is a societal imperative. The time has come to act with urgency, to align our efforts across sectors and systems, and to accelerate meaningful progress for the health and wellbeing of all, everywhere.

 

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