Extreme heat can be deadly, and 2023 is on track to be the hottest year on record. In the United States, heatwaves cause more deaths than any other weather related events. In Europe, close to 62,000 deaths during Summer 2022 were linked to heat related causes. Globally, an estimated 5 million people a year die from extreme temperatures–hot and cold.

Four months ago, the resident medical officer at the HIV and AIDS clinic in Kampala, Uganda reported that the clinic treated up to 50 patients a day. Now, the clinic is relatively empty, and supplies of antiretroviral therapy (ART) pile up, unused.

In this edition of Wilson Center NOW, Gender Equality and Health Equity Through Foreign Policy: A Progress Report, John Milewski, Moderator of the Wilson Center NOW series, interviews Valerie Percival, Wilson Center Fellow and Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (NPSIA) at Carleton University and a Commissioner with the Lancet-SIGHT Commission on Peace, Justice, and Gender Equality for Healthy Societies. Percival and Milewski discuss the role of gender equality and health equity in achieving social and political progress, and the importance of these topics in conversations about foreign policy. Percival also explains her project at the Wilson Center, titled “Promoting Gender Equality and Health Equity through Foreign Policy: Panacea or Fool’s Game?”

“Women’s economic participation promotes economic growth and security. It’s good for the women involved. It’s good for the girls who dream of following in their footsteps,” said Ambassador Mark Green, President and CEO of the Wilson Center at a recent Women’s History Month private event in Washington, DC hosted by the Wilson Center and EMD Serono, the healthcare business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.