The Gates Foundation is one of the most influential philanthropic organisations in the world. With an annual budget of USD$ 8.3 billion in 2023, the Foundation is the largest private philanthropic donor globally. It’s the second-largest donor – after the USA – to the World Health Organization, accounting for 10% of its budget.
Save the Children has been in a longstanding partnership with the Gates Foundation since 2012. It has supported Save the Children to:
- advocate for the health rights of children globally
- influence global policy-making processes
- implement innovative advocacy strategies that focus on the most vulnerable women, children and their communities
Big wins
Over the past 12 years, our partnership with the Gates Foundation has elevated Save the Children’s advocacy and leadership potential.
The partnership has enhanced our role as a key voice for children globally and we’ve been part of high-level policy processes and strategic discussions in global health. The flexibility and agility of our partnership with the Gates Foundation helps make this possible.
Getting universal health coverage (UHC) on the agenda
This collaboration supported us to work on the post-2015 agenda, which culminated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. Save the Children led discussions along with a broad range of partners that resulted in the inclusion of indicator 3.8 under SDG 3:
‘Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.’
In 2019 and 2023, the Save the Children Movement – spearheaded by the Geneva advocacy office alongside a global network of partners working closely with UHC2030 – were able to advocate for and influence the first and second UN Political Declarations of the High-level Meetings on UHC.
More official development assistance (ODA)
Our partnership with the Gates Foundation has helped bring about some big increases in official development assistance (ODA), which is crucial to helping low-income countries overcome pressing challenges and achieve sustainable development. The ODA benchmark is 0.7% of a country’s gross national income.
In Norway, Save the Children and partners were instrumental in the addition of NOK 12.5 billion to the country’s ODA budget during a period of national economic turmoil in 2022-23. This raised the total level of ODA to 0.97% of Norway’s GNI at a time when populist and anti-aid policies typically prevail.
Similarly, in 2016, Germany’s ODA spending reached the 0.7% global target for the first time ever (without in-country refugee costs). It meant more money than ever before was allocated for international development – an achievement Save the Children and other civil society partners strongly advocated for at the national level.
In the USA in 2018, Save the Children and partners were successful in securing an increase of US$15 million from the previous year for maternal and child health. This included $290 million in funding for Gavi the Vaccine Alliance.
Health policy progress the world over
Working with the Gates Foundation, we’ve been part of some significant steps forward in health around the world.
In Indonesia, the Ministry of Health publicly credited Save the Children for our contribution over several years to the development of its National Action Plan on Pneumonia and Diarrhoea for 2023-30.
In November last year, the European Commission launched the EU Global Health Strategy which firmly embeds the ‘leave no one behind’ and ‘health for all’ principles. Save the Children, as a member of the Global Health Policy Forum, worked closely with other civil society organisations (CSOs) to influence this work. As recommended by CSOs, the Strategy will run until 2030 and entail a mid-term review and bi-annual reporting on its implementation.
In Australia, Save the Children and civil society partners celebrated the government’s commitment of AU$15 million in 2023 to tackle the food security crisis in the Horn of Africa. At COP28, they also committed AU$100 million for climate finance in the Pacific, and then announced that Australia will rejoin the Green Climate Fund, dedicating an additional AU$50 million to this pot.
In Nigeria, Save the Children (in coalition with other CSOs) supported the drafting of Kaduna State's health financing policy that launched in 2023, which aims to ensure the efficient use of financial resources for health and universal access to essential packages of care.
This year, during African Vaccination Week (celebrated annually in the last week of April), our collaboration with the Gates Foundation enabled Save the Children and partners to identify and advocate for more than 4,500 children to receive lifesaving vaccines in Ethiopia. Of these children, more than 800 were ‘zero-dose children’, meaning that they had never received any vaccinations before that point.
Here in the UK, our efforts contributed to the UK Government pledge of £50 million to the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in 2018. At the same replenishment event, Save the Children’s engagement and dialogue with the Japanese Government contributed to their US$50 million pledge to the GFF. In 2020, despite the challenges of COVID-19, Save the Children’s leadership was also key in securing a successful Gavi replenishment which exceeded expectations.
Every child, everywhere
We continue to work closely with other CSOs and key partners to ensure that governments continue to prioritise health in their international development agenda. The focus must be on immunisation, nutrition, women and girls, access to primary healthcare, and strengthening existing healthcare systems for the most vulnerable and marginalised communities around the world.
We’ve seen real progress – as the successes here show. But there’s still a long road ahead to achieve the SDGs and tackle injustice towards children.
To get there, all sectors will need to align and push for the right policies and resources to be put in place.
This is why synergistic partnerships, such as the one Save the Children has with the Gates Foundation, are vital in paving the way for civil society and the private sector to work effectively together for common good.
