Call for nominations for a list of Somali Women in Global Health

The visibility and recognition of women as leaders and experts in global health remains a challenge. Too often, we witness panels of men and gender imbalanced scientific gatherings and other meetings in which the expertise of women is rarely included or acknowledged. Evidence shows that women comprise 70% of the global health workforce but only make up 25% of the top leadership positions. The Global Health 50/50 report revealed that decision-making power remains concentrated in the hands of men, with men leading 70% of global health organizations and 80% of boards of these organizations.

Professional recognition contributes to career advancement and lifetime achievement; yet, in the past 10 years, only 10% of public health and medicine awards were given to women. In recent years, social media campaigns, which aimed to showcase women working at the forefront of global health, were launched with an open process to collect nominations via Twitter. A series of lists have been published using the hashtags #WGH100, #WGH200, and #WGH300 [see #WGH300 List and WGH Germany List]. This movement inspired the establishment of a global organization called Women in Global Health (WGH) that brings together all who desire to achieve gender equality in global health leadership. Those involved in this movement believe that everyone has the right to attain equal levels of participation in leadership and decision-making regardless of gender. WGH wishes to expand this list to 500 women (#WGH500), in particular by soliciting and encouraging the nomination of women representing other countries, including Somalia.

In line with the values of WGH, we believe that in order to promote gender equality in global health leadership, we must pay careful attention to ensure diversity and that we acknowledge the roles of women from all countries and regions, also by forming different WGH chapters, namely Germany, Norway, USA and a Francophone chapter. The Somali WGH chapter will initially be hosted by the Somali Institute for Development and Research Analysis (SIDRA).

The objective of the Somali chapter is two folds: 1) to demonstrate women’s contribution in the rebuilding in the Somali health system; and 2) to create a platform of network and support for -and between women in global health. The list will also serve as an easy reference to these women to be taken into consideration for leadership positions, decision-making bodies, and presentations and talks on panels and conferences.

For this reason, we seek nominations of women in Somalia. Guidelines for nominations:

1. Nominees must be Somali women working in global health/health in Somali regions and abroad, who are practitioners, policy makers, advocates, health professionals, researchers and students working in global health.
2. Nominees are welcome from anywhere around the world, if they fulfill the criteria stated in the previous point 1.
3. Nominees may be at any stage of their career (early, middle, or late/senior) and self-nominations is accepted We invite you to submit your nominations by December 13th, 2018 through any one of these methods:

Send an email with your name, the name of the nominee, their position and organisation where they work, and their contact details to:

1.  WGHSomalia@womeningh.org and info@womeningh.org

2. Nominate via Twitter using both hashtags #WGHSomalia and #WGH500 Submit your nominations today