September 23, 2025—Pathfinder International announces the launch of Women&Co, a new strategy and innovation platform that builds on the organization’s six decades of deep government and partner relationships and track record in systems strengthening across Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Pathfinder makes this radical expansion while introducing its new mission: to catalyze women-led, locally grounded sustainable solutions that enable women to navigate change, shape their own futures, and lead healthy lives.
Recognizing that women are already solving problems every day, Women&Co brings together a multidisciplinary group of women who are experts, innovators, and changemakers at the convergence of health and climate issues. The innovation system is designed to pioneer transformative solutions that solve problems, create new opportunities for women, and rapidly scale across communities and countries. The “&Co” represents the ecosystem surrounding this work—communities, companies, collaborators, and coalitions—working together to fuel women-led change.
“Women have a unique understanding of complex issues and a proven ability to get things done. Putting more women in leadership is vitally needed to make progress on the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Tabinda Sarosh, President and CEO.
“Women&Co represents the next era of international development: innovation with a power shift so that women are not just voices and recipients, but active leaders in shaping change for their communities while also influencing broader, structural change. This platform opens up exciting pathways for collaboration, welcoming a diverse range of partners, investors, governments, and the private sector to join us in putting women’s leadership at the center of progress.”
Unique to the sector, Women&Co utilizes a bespoke innovation system and incorporates a demand-led approach by pinpointing what women and communities need now while also rethinking and reshaping systems to meet the demands of a changing world. This approach ensures that innovations are not isolated disruptions but are embedded in existing systems so that solutions are nationally relevant and scalable.
“It is not a time for incremental change. It’s about retuning how the sector solves problems and operates. This launch exemplifies that Pathfinder is now pivoting to make women-led innovation the central pillar of its strategy. Underpinning its new innovation design system, Pathfinder has been heading in this direction for a few years now and has the footprints and relationships to fast-track Women&Co to address complex issues everywhere we operate,” said Collin Mothupi, Board of Directors Chair.
Women&Co has already designed its first social enterprise business, which is launching in Kenya. Women&Co is building its women-led communities and kicking off with co-design in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Egypt during 2025.
About Pathfinder
For nearly 70 years, Pathfinder has worked alongside women and girls in more than 100 countries, ensuring they have access to the critical services and resources they need. We work in close partnership with governments, civil society organizations, and other local partners to deliver services where unmet need is the highest, advance policies that contribute to gender equity, work with communities to transform practices and beliefs that harm women and girls, partner with young people to build a healthier future, and work at the intersections of climate and health, contributing to more resilient communities and health systems.
