July 31, 2009 | Read Time: 3 minutes
As part of an ongoing effort to help Africa, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation today is awarding $43.8-million to support primary health care on the continent — a cause that is attracting a growing amount of philanthropic support.
The money, which will be provided over a five- to seven-year period, will assist five impoverished countries in sub-Saharan Africa to train managers of government health centers, expand innovative programs to curb child deaths, and examine ways to offer health services in rural areas. The grants are part of a $100-million African Health Initiative the New York foundation announced in 2007 during the Clinton Global Initiative.
The programs will work closely with African governments to make sure that any progress made will continue when the foundation’s support ends, the grant maker said in a press statement. Each of the projects will seek to benefit residents living in specific districts, ranging in population from 300,000 to 1.6 million.
Doris Duke hopes the almost $44-million in grants will “address some of the delivery gaps that will improve the health-care systems in the regions they are working,” said Ed Henry, the foundation’s president.
Specifically, the grant maker will assist four partnerships between governments and international aid groups, hospitals, and universities.
In Mozambique, Health Alliance International, in Seattle, will work with the country’s Ministry of Health to improve the management at the 140 health facilities in Sofala province. The Health Alliance is receiving $10-million for the project. The Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in New York, is getting $14.7-million to help Tanzania and Ghana expand efforts to reduce child and maternal mortality rates. In Rwanda, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Partners in Health, both based in Boston, will provide primary health care in two rural districts using an $8-million grant. With $11.1-million, the University of Alabama at Birmingham will work in three rural areas of Zambia to build on a successful HIV/AIDS program and transform it into a way to provide other medical aid.
Strengthening Systems
The announcement by Doris Duke reflects an interest by foundations to do more to help health-care systems in Africa and other developing regions of the world. This month the Rockefeller Foundation, in New York, pledged $100-million to improve health services in Ghana, Rwanda, and Vietnam. (Read the Chronicle’s article about the Rockefeller program.)
While foundations have long sought to bolster global health, they have tended to focus their efforts on specific diseases like malaria or tuberculosis. Privately, fund raisers at major health charities complain that grant makers are too targeted with their efforts and ignore widespread health issues.
Peter Ndumbe, dean of health sciences at the University of Buea, in Cameroon, said that Doris Duke’s approach indicates a shift in thinking.
“What makes these partnerships so potentially powerful is that they are designed to save lives by strengthening the very systems that are needed to support the growing number of vertical programs for particular diseases like AIDS and malaria,” said Dr. Ndumbe, who sits on the panel of researchers that is advising the Doris Duke foundation with its Africa program.
