Reimagining Women's Health with Human-Centered Design

In global majority countries, the health challenges faced by women and girls are often overlooked by innovations designed for other contexts. For example, Nigeria has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, 576 deaths per 100,000 live births, resulting in over 80,000 preventable deaths annually. Only 19% of women use modern contraceptives, and more than 26,000 die each year from breast and cervical cancer, largely due to limited access and culturally mismatched interventions.

ClientGates Foundation

Location(s) lagos & kano, nigeria

The WHI (Women’s Health Innovation) team at the Gates Foundation aims to shift this paradigm by ensuring that interventions, ranging from products and diagnostics to services and delivery strategies, are developed with and for the women and girls most affected by these conditions. To achieve this, we sought to get the lived realities of women, engaging them as active partners and leaders in decision-making.

Women co-creating with prototypes to share insights on what makes their experience feel personal

We developed a comprehensive plan which detailed both research and logistical processes for engaging women from 2 different regions within the country, in intimate settings where they could share openly, prompted by elicitation methods, interview questions, FGDs (Focus Group Discussions) and co-creation activities.

Our journey began with curiosity and empathy, as we knew that to truly uncover the realities of women’s health in Nigeria, we had to step into their world, not as distant observers, but as confidantes.

Affirmation cards were used as fun and inspiring props to spark confidence, cause the women to loosen up, and kick start conversation during the sessions