Health Innovations are Coming: Philanthropists Can Help Realize Their Potential
As someone who works in the philanthropy sector, I am encouraged by two new trends.
The first is a shift in international assistance for health in Africa. Increasingly, global organizations – including the Gates Foundation – are providing resources directly to African scientists and institutions.
In 2023, more than 55% of large-scale giving from non-African funders went to African NGOs, up from just 14% between 2010 and 2019. Individually, these donations help give African organizations a direct role in shaping and implementing projects. Collectively, they help make the philanthropic sector more inclusive – and ultimately more impactful.
The second trend is a growth in giving by African philanthropists themselves. Expanding platforms, like the African Philanthropy Forum and the Africa Philanthropy Conference, recently held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe are enabling African philanthropists to connect, share knowledge, and collaborate on initiatives that address the continent’s most pressing challenges. This year’s focus at the conference was exploring ‘The Next Frontier of African Philanthropy,’ in recognition of the evolving philanthropic landscape on the continent.
To cite one inspiring example: in the last five years alone, Nigerian philanthropists have given at least $434 million in funding for projects spanning health, education, youth empowerment, and more. If more donors follow suit, we can support more problem-solvers across Africa with the resources they need to go further and faster, especially to advance medical innovation.
Supporting innovation
Amid a range of political and economic challenges facing the African continent, an important bright spot is emerging: an innovative pipeline of new health solutions that promises to help the continent deliver on its development agenda.
A portable ultrasound machine enhanced with artificial intelligence could help nurses and midwives better identify high-risk pregnancies and keep mothers and newborns safe. New, lower-cost diagnostic tests for tuberculosis could help curb the spread of the continent’s deadliest disease. These are just a few of the many health breakthroughs that scientists are on the cusp of achieving.
Governments, multilateral institutions, and the private sector each have an important role to play in bringing new health solutions to life and getting them to people in need. But there is another sector with enormous potential to realize the promise of health innovation: philanthropy.
A worthy investment
In a world full of deserving causes, health innovation – which can take years or even decades to produce results – may not seem like the best philanthropic bet. But a new report from Policy Cures Research reveals the far-reaching benefits of funding health research and development. By 2040, investments in new medical products for diseases like TB, HIV and malaria since 2000 will have saved more than 40 million lives and generated nearly US$ 50 trillion in economic impact by preventing illnesses that hold people back from education and employment.
Those investments have already produced hundreds of solutions that are making a difference for people across the continent. For example, 20 years ago, our toolbox to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic was severely limited. Thanks to investments in innovation, 20.8 million people in Africa are now on antiretroviral therapies.
There are more than 750 active candidates in the pipeline for new products to fight infectious diseases. Unlocking their power depends on continued and strategic investment.
Philanthropy’s unique role
The foundation has been a committed partner in efforts to improve health and advance innovation in Africa for more than two decades. We’ve learned that philanthropy has a critical and often overlooked role to play beyond dollars pledged, providing flexible and targeted support where governments and other sectors may not be able to act as quickly or nimbly.
Take drug discovery, the high-risk but high-reward process of inventing new medicines. Global economic disparities and market-driven incentives have pushed critical research away from drug discovery for diseases that disproportionately burden many communities in Africa. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa has the lowest number of clinical trials done compared to other regions. Consequently, the majority of drugs are developed through clinical trials done outside Africa’s borders, without taking into account the potential effects on African patients or the healthcare systems.
To help overcome this challenge, programs like the Grand Challenges Africa Drug Discovery Accelerator – funded almost exclusively via philanthropy – are helping African scientists carry out research projects that address unmet health needs in their communities. The antituberculosis drug development program and the novel anti-malarial program are some of the successes borne out of this initiative.
Opportunity for the continent
One of the most exciting parts of philanthropy is its flexibility to seize opportunities. Two decades of scientific innovation have created unprecedented opportunities to improve health and save lives across the continent – with the right support. The sooner new investments come, the more people we can help realize their full potential.
Paulin Basinga is the Africa Director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.