Launched today on International Day for Maternal Health and Rights by the White Ribbon Alliance and partners, the What Women Want campaign aims to gather input from at least one million women and adolescent girls about how they define high quality maternal and reproductive health services. The campaign will collect data through the end of December 2018 and will help promote a global understanding of what women want as well as provide country-specific information. In early 2019, the campaign will shift to developing and implementing an agenda shaped by women’s voices.
Key messages
- There is growing consensus among global and national health leaders that we must be more deliberate in providing quality, equitable and dignified health care to women and girls if we are going to achieve related Sustainable Development Goals and achieve universal health coverage.
- To provide quality health care we must first understand what quality means to women and girls.
- Quality means different things to different people, and often women’s and girls’ voices aren’t counted when developing policies or designing programs that are meant for them.
- Women’s and girls’ opinions about their health matter and they must be valued so they can best direct their own health care.
- What Women Want is an important advocacy initiative meant to discover what quality health care means to women and girls around the world and create an agenda to realize their demands.
Take the survey and spread the word
The campaign poses one simple, open-ended question: “My one request for quality reproductive and maternal health care services is…” Survey responses will help inform policies, programs and services and generate momentum around women’s experiences of care.
Please share your one “ask” or “request” and add your voice to the million women and girls around the world calling for change.
The online survey is currently available in English, Spanish, French, German and Swahili and is also available in print.
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Join the conversation on social media using #WhatWomenWant and #IntlMHDay.