Gates Foundation announces $500M fund for Africa: What's the purpose?
What's the story
A group of philanthropic organizations, including the Gates Foundation, has created a $500 million fund to improve maternal and newborn health in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Beginnings Fund was launched in Abu Dhabi with strong backing from the UAE's Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity.
The initiative comes at a time when funding for global health is being drastically cut.
Strategy
Fund's unique approach
Alice Kang'ethe, Chief Executive of the Beginnings Fund, highlighted its unique approach.
Unlike conventional donor programs that often deploy outside experts or technologies, this fund seeks to work with African governments, experts and organizations.
The fund's main aim is to save 300,000 mothers and newborns by 2030, and improve quality care for another 34 million mothers and babies.
Focus areas
Tackling maternal and infant mortality
The Beginnings Fund will target low-cost interventions and personnel at high-burden hospitals in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The fund will tackle key causes of maternal and infant mortality including infection, severe bleeding for mothers, and respiratory distress for infants.
The move comes after plateauing or reversal of progress in reducing newborn and maternal deaths worldwide in recent years.
Call to action
Urgency for preventive measures in maternal and infant health
Ethiopia's Minister of Health Dr. Mekdes Daba emphasized the urgency of the situation saying, "Mothers and newborns should not be dying from causes we know how to prevent."
Most deaths, she stressed, are avoidable.
The Beginnings Fund has also garnered support from organizations like Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Delta Philanthropies as well as ELMA Foundation.
The fund will be run out of Nairobi, Kenya.