Our Impact

WomenLift Health will achieve transformative change for a diverse set of women leaders at scale. The advancement of talented women across the public, private, and non-profit sectors will contribute to the policies, practices, and research needed to accelerate improvements in global health outcomes.

Transformative change

Catalyzing behavior change of individual women and influencing change in the society and organizations in which they live and work.

Scale

Reaching tens of thousands of women through a portfolio of interventions.

Diversity

Engaging and empowering mid-career women in global health from different countries, cultures, sectors, and disciplines.

The WomenLift Health Theory of Change

WomenLift Health is based on the theory that advancing accomplished mid-career women to senior positions in global health will lead to improved health outcomes and advancements in gender equality. WomenLift Health believes that elevating these women to senior positions requires both investment in their individual leadership skills and contributing to and influencing change in the environment in which they live and work. In the absence of this support many of these women will be unable to navigate their organizational and societal environment, and women leaders will continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions in the global health arena. Change only happens when individuals take action. WomenLift Health is designed to support people to be change agents – as individuals, leaders and members of organizations, and influencers of society. Together, small changes add-up to big results.

Last updated September 10, 2021.

At WomenLift Health, we know that moving the needle on global health outcomes will take time, but also hold ourselves accountable for the building blocks of transformative change along the way. Our monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) activities are core to our work. We systematically track outputs and outcomes against key indicators, as well as conducting regular qualitative and quantitative landscape assessments to tailor our approach. We invest in annual evaluations to synthesize the progress and lessons learned from the year. We’re pleased to share the findings from our most recent evaluation, with some of the more salient learnings, below.

Central to WomenLift Health’s work is our signature Leadership Journey, an intensive year-long leadership immersion for mid-career women working in health around the world. The Leadership Journey is designed to give talented women leaders the tools – confidence, networks, understanding of barriers – along with peer, mentor and coach support, to successfully use their voice, expertise and leadership skills for health impact.

WomenLift’s second US-based Leadership Journey cohort concluded in February 2022, with the first Leadership Journey cohorts in India and East Africa beginning in April and May 2022, respectively. This year, nearly two-thirds of the women in Cohort 2 said they were “very satisfied” with their overall experience with the Leadership Journey, with 95% reporting high levels of satisfaction.

Key outcomes included:

the growth of peer support networks that provide women with a safe space to discuss both professional and personal issues
increased confidence and voice, which they are using to push for change
greater self-awareness that spurs more deliberate action at work

Consistently, women said they valued depth of connection most, whether speaking about alumnae events, potential e-learning opportunities, or connections with women in other regions. While growing, the alumnae network has had several successful workshops and alumnae-led events during the first year.

While we take the long view and know that moving the needle on global health outcomes will take time, we are holding ourselves accountable for the building blocks of transformative change along the way. Our dashboard provides real-time, transparent data that tracks our key indicators so our stakeholders, partners and women leaders can see progress on our journey to impact.

Strategy for Transformative Change

WomenLift Health will implement a portfolio of interventions that reinforce transformative change and that ripple out to reach an increasing number of women and men.