Challenging Gendered Inequalities in Global Health: Dilemmas for NGOs

ABSTRACT This article considers the implications of the changing funding landscape in global health for NGOs in the health sector, particularly where they have aspired to promote gender equality and justice through their health work. The article reflects on the tensions that arise as a result of the growing influence of business norms within health funding alongside what critics have termed the ‘scientization’ of global health, and it considers the gendered implications of these developments. It is argued that it is due to the under‐valuation and marginalization of community‐based work that provides spaces for women's voices in the design and delivery of health interventions that large‐scale ‘technical’ interventions receive priority. The article examines what this means in terms of NGOs’ ability to work towards producing transformative change around gender — and indeed racial — equality.