Philanthropic Foundations and Global Health Partnership Formation: The Rockefeller Foundation and IAVI

Abstract

Large-scale philanthropic foundations based in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world have long had an interest in the area of health. This interest has extended to the institutional arrangements established to deliver essential medicines and also to promote sexual and reproductive health as a means to curb population growth and reduce infant mortality rates. However in recent years we have seen a significant scaling-up of foundation funding for seemingly intractable transnational health problems, notably in the area of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, which disproportionately affect communities in low and lower-middle income countries (LMICs). While this can largely be attributed to the emergence of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Renz and Atienza, 2006), it is also broadly indicative of trends toward greater private sector intervention in global health policy, and, by implication, governance of global health (Bull and McNeill, 2007). This can be seen as a continuation of earlier programmatic work of private foundations, notably the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, who pioneered research and development (R&D) and established policy networks in health, paving the way for the present wave of philanthropists from Clinton through to Soros.