A South-South initiative to address health care challenges

The Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative is a partnership between the Gates Foundation and the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar. Launched in 2024, the Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative aims to address health care challenges in low- and middle-income countries, through developing a South-South community of senior public health civil servants to exchange insights and identify solutions for improved health service delivery.

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Maternal, Newborn, Child Nutrition & Health

A wide variety of global health initiatives support low- and middle-income countries in working toward their health targets. But despite continued allocations of financial and technical resources, progress toward key health indicators has stagnated or even been reversed in recent years.

Maternal and child mortality rates remain high in the Global South due to multiple factors, including insufficient funding for programs; lack of data to understand the determinants of maternal and newborn health vulnerabilities; poor deployment of proven, innovative lifesaving preventive and curative interventions; lack of support for community frontline workers, nurses, and midwives; and limited active support from country-level political and financial authorities.

The Doha Global South Health Policy Initiative aims to identify critical gaps in the delivery of primary health care services that can be filled through technical and financial assistance from international partners and donors.

Senior public health civil servants from low- and middle-income countries are best placed to advocate for their national health priorities and seek solutions in international forums. But they have limited opportunities to gather with one another and discuss the issues they face.

With a focus on South-South dialogue between senior public health civil servants, the initiative provides opportunities to exchange knowledge, identify challenges, and brainstorm solutions through a series of gatherings. The goal is to develop a community of practice for technical cooperation in specific areas of health policy and programming that includes countries, international organizations, academics, civil society, and the private sector.