The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has shaped the global development landscape for two decades, with about $60 billion in grants to its name. Global health is one of the foundation’s biggest priorities — so we’re taking a look at where that money went.
Today we’re also asking what humanitarian leaders can do to maximize the value of food assistance, and sharing May’s top read Devex Pro articles.
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One big thing jumps out when you see the list of the Gates Foundation’s top 10 grantees in global health: From 1998 to April 2022, the organizations that make the list are all either based in the United States or Switzerland.
My colleague Miguel Antonio Tamonan analyzed Gates’ global health grants during this time period and found that the foundation has awarded a total of 6,666 grants under global health, worth $24.2 billion. Of this amount, $7.3 billion, or 30.1%, went to the top 10 grantees.
So who tops the list? That would be Seattle-based PATH, which has received 165 grants from the Gates Foundation, worth a combined $1.8 billion. The biggest grant the organization has received — worth $184.9 million — was for the development of the RTS,S malaria vaccine — which in 2021 became the first malaria vaccine recommended for broad use by the World Health Organization.
Also making the list are WHO, in second place, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, in sixth place, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, in ninth place.
Read: Gates Foundation's top 10 health grant winners (Pro)
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Gates’ outsized influence at WHO has caused some experts to worry about what it means for a private philanthropist to hold so much sway over the global health agenda.
But WHO doesn’t necessarily have the luxury to worry about things like that. The international body’s health emergencies program does not have enough money to deal with the growing list of alarming health concerns it is responsible for, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19 response, told Devex last week at the World Health Assembly.
Read: WHO 'certainly don't have enough money' for health emergencies program
Behind closed doors
Speaking of Gates, today the former power couple is hosting the first in-person Giving Pledge gathering since 2019. Theodore Schleifer at Puck has a scoop-y rundown of who might or might not be there — MacKenzie Scott? — and what they might or might not say. He also shares this reflection on how the Giving Pledge has made itself user-friendly to billionaires:
“For a decade, the Gates team have been proudly, almost aggressively agnostic about the issues that their philanthropists choose to fund—as long as they are dedicating more than half of their money to charity, any charity, the Giving Pledge box is checked. That hands-off approach is friendly to donors, who wouldn’t take too well to a bunch of less-accomplished Seattle staffers strong-arming them into spending their millions on X or on Y.”
ICYMI: As MacKenzie Scott donates $3.9B, one grantee expresses ambivalence
Go Pro
Here’s a look at our top-read Devex Pro stories for May:
1. Latest USAID NextGen contract criticized over innovation, transparency. USAID has released a set of amendments to its $4.1 billion Integrated PSA — one of the biggest contracts it has ever put out. But a review says the agency could do more to promote innovation and transparency.
2. How USAID assistance funding for local partners fell in 2021. The most recent figures suggest USAID’s assistance funding for localization fell by about $200 million between fiscal years 2020 and 2021. Here's an analysis of how the funding went to local partners.
3. Court ruling helps English foundations invest ethically. A recent legal ruling has given English grant-making foundations much greater freedom to invest in line with their principles and purposes, rather than being required to maximize the cash they give away.
Check out the rest of our top stories, and join us on June 9 for a Devex Pro Live event on USAID’s largest-ever suite of contracts Beyond NextGen: Solving the challenges of health supply chains. Devex Pro subscribers can register here.
Not a Pro subscriber yet? Sign up for a free trial to join.
Ounces of prevention
Ready-to-use therapeutic foods — or RUTF — are a critical tool in the fight against food insecurity and hunger. Dr. Mesfin Teklu Tessema, senior director of health at the International Rescue Committee, writes in an op-ed for Devex that humanitarian leaders must take action now to ensure these lifesaving products are available and ready to deploy as the war in Ukraine, climate change, and COVID-19 push the world into an acute food security crisis.
Opinion: War in Ukraine is driving a malnutrition crisis. Enter RUTF
+ For more content like this, sign up to Devex Dish, a free weekly newsletter on the transformation of the global food system, and receive its latest edition today, which looks into who’s being impacted the most by the global food crisis.
Sending a message
“Despite early warnings, Lebanon has lost precious time and numerous opportunities to adopt a path to reform its economic and financial system.”
— Saroj Kumar Jha, Mashreq regional director, World BankThe World Bank issued this week a strongly-worded rebuke of Lebanon’s failure to deal with its economic and political crises. The statement comes as the bank released its review of Lebanon’s country partnership framework over the last five years.
Background reading: As Lebanon restarts IMF talks, experts fear needed reforms won’t come (Pro)
In other news
The United Nations has named its media training program for Palestinian journalists after slain Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh. [Washington Post]
Sri Lanka has applied for food assistance from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation amid a worsening debt crisis. [Financial Times]
A Médecins Sans Frontières staff member in the Central African Republic was killed Saturday by a member of the armed forces. [MSF]
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About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
