As Germany is taking on a new leadership role in global health, it is important to ensure that women not only significantly contribute to this development, but are also equal leaders. Professor Ilona Kickbusch (Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) and Dr. Sabine Ludwig (Charité Berlin / Robert Koch Institute) have taken forward this idea and already in July 2017 initiated the establishment of a group of women working in the field of global health in Berlin and discussed the founding of a German chapter of the international movement Women in Global Health (WGH), with the continuous support and advice of WGH founder Dr. Roopa Dhatt.

This first national "pilot chapter" of the international movement started off by collecting nominations and compiling a list of German women working in global health in Germany, and internationally, as well as international women working in global health in Germany.  Women on the list are required to have a minimum of two years’ work experience in this field. The list will be used as the basis for a national network of women in global health in Germany. The list includes more than 100 women  from academia, scientific institutions, foundations, non-governmental organisations, international organisations, ministries and the private sector.

The list and the network were officially launched on 12th January 2018 with the support of the German Ministries of Economic Cooperation and Development and of Health, the World Health Summit, and further sponsors. More than seventy women attended the launch event.
Ingrid-Gabriela Hoven, Head of the Directorate-General for Global Issues (Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development) and Lutz Stroppe (State Secretary, Ministry of Health) gave speeches emphasising the importance of gender equality in global health while Dr. Bettina Menne (World Health Organization / Copenhagen) and Dheepa Rajan (World Health Organization/ Headquarters Geneva) spoke about their personal experiences concerning gender equality and combining family and work within the World Health Organization. Dr. Roopa Dhatt presented the international organisation Women in Global Health (WGH) and Dr. Sabine Ludwig the first national pilot chapter of the international movement Women in Global Health – Germany (WGH-GER). In addition, the famous young Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing played during the event and an American film team under the US film maker and director David Donnelly was video shooting the event. The launch event will be featured in his upcoming film “Forte”, which focusses on the topics of women’s leadership and empowerment from a perspective of culture and art.

The participants continued to discuss the objectives, work priorities and the future organisational structure of the initiative, as well as the possibilities of establishing a mentoring programme. The objectives are to increase the visibility of the women of the network and their contributions to global health, to expand the network and identify further women for the list, to keep the network flexible, to meet regularly, and to enhance mutual support. The network and its list of women will serve as an easy reference for these women to be taken into consideration for leadership positions, decision-making bodies, presentations and talks on panels and conferences. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany is already using this list for future placements of professional women.

Work priorities include active participation in the revision of the global health strategy of the German government, the identification of important global health issues, the development of criteria for equal representation of both genders on panels and conferences, and the establishment of mentoring programme.

WGH-GER is considered to be a best practice example for other national chapters. Norway and Sweden have already started developing their own national chapters and will receive advice from both WGH and WGH-GER. The aim is to support and motivate further countries to start their networks and contribute to more equality in global health on the local and national level.

Find more information about the WGH-GER here.

Written for the GHC Newsletter by Dr Sabine Ludwig, Research Associate, Robert Koch Institute, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin