Social impact organisation, Pivotal, founded by Melinda French Gates, has launched an US$250m global open call to fund entities working to improve women’s mental and physical health. Action for Women’s Health is a key component of the $1bn French Gates announced in May to advance women’s power globally. Each awardee will receive flexible funding of between $1 and $5m.

To be eliglible, organisations must serve women and have a record of improving women’s mental or physical health. They should center equity in their approach and be poised to scale their work to strengthen the health of more women.

Women around the world experience inequities across all aspects of their health—from spending more years in poor health to facing barriers to access services and treatments

These inequities can negatively impact women’s daily lives as well as their economic prospects and prosperity, their ability to engage in their communities, and their opportunities to achieve their goals.

“More than a billion women and girls suffer from malnutrition. Reproductive health care is being denied in the U.S. and other countries. And globally, a woman dies in childbirth every two minutes,” said French Gates.

“This is unacceptable, but there is reason for hope. Organizations around the world are taking innovative approaches to addressing these challenges, and this open call is about getting them the resources they need to scale up and reach as many people as possible.”