Decolonisation of global conferences: unfinished business for women's health advocates

Abstract

Global health consensus in recent years has highlighted ‘decolonisation’ as an important factor in the pursuit of equity. Initiatives such as the United Nations’ sustainable development goals for 2030 have come amid talk of ‘bottom up’ programming, driven by the needs of people living and working in the world's most deprived regions. However, most high-level meetings still take place in wealthy countries where United Nations bodies, major donors and the biggest non-governmental organisations are headquartered. In midwifery, maternity experts from low- and middle-income countries may struggle to take part in discussions because of barriers such as visa restrictions, travel costs and the challenge of breaking into old-school networks. Meanwhile multimillion dollar programmes designed to save mothers’ and babies’ lives lose out on insights from the very people that they are intended to help. With this in mind, a wave of non-governmental organisations focused on women's health and gender equality are moving their conferences closer to the action. This article explores a dynamic field, where forces for change are responding directly to evidence on ‘conference inequity’. Non-governmental organisations including WomenLift Health and the International Confederation of Midwives explain how and why they are shaking things up.