NIRWN staff and some rural members attended a Women’s Health Listening Exercise Engagement Event at the Europa Hotel, Belfast — helping shape the forthcoming Women’s Health Action Plan.

For the past four years, we’ve been proud to be part of an initiative “Nothing About Us Without Us” alongside The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland (CFNI), ensuring women’s lived experiences inform policy.

It was powerful to see advocates, researchers and policymakers together — including Department of Health (DoH), Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Derry Well Woman (DWW) and Women’s Resource & Development Agency (WRDA) — united around one clear message:

Women must be at the centre of decisions about women’s health.

NIRWN ensured rural women’s voices were in the room — highlighting barriers around access, transport, specialist services, menopause, maternity and mental health. Geography must not determine health outcomes. This work has always been about listening. Now it must be about action.

Because when it comes to women’s health — nothing about us without us.