Set the vision · Create a roadmap · Own the future
Women's Health 2040
The Nordic Charter is published. This is what it is doing this week.
136+
Researchers, clinicians, policymakers, patient representatives, and innovation leaders who participated in the participatory strategic foresight process across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden that produced the Charter. Methodology peer-reviewed in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health (January 2026).
5
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The Charter is an open commons framework for pan-Nordic coordination; national and regional actors within each country adopt activities within their own mandates.
USD 30–50B
Annual Nordic GDP opportunity by 2040 from closing the women’s health gap — combining productivity gains, healthcare cost reductions, and women’s health innovation market capture. Directional estimate. See methodology for sources and provenance.
The Implementation Playbook names twenty-eight specific infrastructure needs across Research, Care, Innovation, and the Awareness Foundation. Each maps to existing Nordic and European initiatives, with cross-references to the activities the named need depends on or strengthens. Open the navigator to browse them.
About the Initiative
By 2040, we envision women's health that is anticipatory, data-driven and woven into everyday wellbeing, where health is a birthright, not a benefit.
Shaped by 136+ contributors across five Nordic countries, the Nordic Charter for Women's Health 2040 sets out this vision. The method behind it is published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health (opens in a new tab). The Implementation Playbook, developed with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, translates it into 28 needs institutions can address on their own terms. Both are open commons under CC BY 4.0. Every week, the Nordic Intelligence Brief records what is moving across the five countries against those needs, alongside the Funding Radar of open calls and active funders and the Events Telescope of women's health events.
How It Was Built
In 2025, the Charter was developed through participatory strategic foresight, with methodology developed in collaboration with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and the Nordic Women's Health Hub. Over 136 contributors from healthcare, research, policy, and innovation across Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden shaped the framework.
The Charter was co-created at the Danish Parliament on 8 September 2025 and launched on 8 December 2025 at the Embassy of Finland in Copenhagen, co-hosted by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Julia Persson, the Charter's Founding Architect and one of its two main authors, is the main author of the Implementation Playbook, its companion volume, published on 28 May 2026 in strategic collaboration between Women's Health 2040 and the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. Read the full authorship and contributor list
From Charter to Action
The Implementation Playbook was published on 28 May 2026, on the International Day of Action for Women's Health — mapping Charter activities to existing Nordic and European initiatives. Published as an open commons (CC BY 4.0) in partnership with the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. Ambassadors across the Nordics are carrying the framework into their institutions and networks.
The Women's Health 2040 Framework
Three operational domains. Four infrastructure pillars. One cultural foundation. Independently validated by five expert groups.
See the 28 named needs populating this framework in the Playbook Navigator
Founding Architect
Julia Persson
Founding Architect of the Nordic Charter for Women's Health 2040 and main author of its Implementation Playbook. Takes part in the WHO/Europe Public Health Innovation Platform in her own capacity, for the Charter, and serves on the EU advisory board for myHealth@myHands. 20+ years of digital transformation experience at Accenture, Swedbank, AWS, and Maersk. Separately, founder and CEO of Scita Health, a Danish precision prevention company.
Founding Ambassadors
Five leaders who shaped and champion the Charter across the Nordic region.
Aura Pyykönen
Independent
🇫🇮 Finland
Christina Lloyd
Care & Communication
🇸🇪 Sweden
Daria Krivonos
Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
🇩🇰 Denmark
Hilde Færevik
Innovasjon Norge
🇳🇴 Norway
Kristina Gemzell Danielsson
Karolinska Institutet
🇸🇪 Sweden
Peer-Reviewed Research
Published in The Lancet
The Nordic Charter for Women’s Health 2040: vision-led architecture for women’s health
Julia Persson · Kristina Gemzell Danielsson · Daria Krivonos
The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health