GCOA is proud to launch our new report titled, Empowering Women for Healthy Aging: Key Policy Actions to Address Health Challenges Across the Life Course, which calls on policy and health system leaders to advance gender equality and economic growth by empowering women to achieve healthy aging.

Women’s access to quality healthcare and their economic participation are inextricably linked. As women are indispensable leaders in the economy, their communities, and their families, pursuing good health at each stage of the life course must be a target of policymakers and healthcare systems. Doing so can empower women to live long, healthy lives, from youth through old age, and enable their full participation in their economies.

The new report comes during a milestone year. 2020 marks the 25^th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration on Women’s Rights, the 10^th anniversary of UN Women’s foundation, and the commencement of the WHO Decade of Healthy Ageing, central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The report offers recommendations for policymakers and healthcare systems:

• Support research to better understand women’s lifelong health needs and risks, in childbearing years and as they age, including by increasing participation in research and clinical trials.
• Provide educational resources for women of childbearing age to make healthier choices throughout the life course, supporting prevention and promotion of healthy aging.
• Train healthcare providers and educate caregivers on delivery of integrated, person-centered care for women throughout their lives.
• Implement national screening and prevention programs for conditions particularly affecting and/or under-diagnosed in aging women, which today are often ignored until an acute event.
• Integrate global women’s rights with healthy and active aging – prioritizing women’s health and ability in each of the Decade of Healthy Ageing focus areas.