How We Work with Governments to Advance Global Health Progress: FAQ

Because the problems we're working to solve — eliminating malaria, ending tuberculosis, reducing child and maternal mortality — are too large for any single organization to address alone. Governments are the world's largest funders of health research and the primary providers of health services. We bring philanthropic resources, scientific expertise, and a willingness to take risks on promising ideas; governments bring scale, reach, and public accountability. Working together helps promising ideas reach more people than any one organization could on its own.

It varies by agency and region, but most partnerships involve one or more of the following:

• Co-funding specific research projects aligned with both parties' priorities
• Sharing scientific data and findings to improve program design
• Convening researchers, policymakers, and implementers to align on evidence and strategy
• Providing grant funding to independent intermediary organizations to support jointly identified programs
• Supporting the development and evaluation of new tools, treatments, and approaches

Governments and public agencies like the U.S. National Institutes of Health are independent institutions that set their own research agendas, develop their own policies, and make their own funding decisions. The foundation's role is to collaborate—sharing scientific expertise, identifying areas of mutual interest, and contributing resources to specific, mutually agreed projects. We don't determine how government funding is allocated, and we don't dictate policy.

All grants the foundation makes, including those that support projects led by government entities, are publicly searchable in our grants database. You can learn more about our commitment to transparency here. In addition, our funding agreements include global access provisions designed to help ensure that the benefits of innovations supported by the foundation are made available and accessible to the people who need them most.