The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced that it will spend more than $7 billion over the next four years in support of African countries and institutions working to develop and implement innovative approaches to confront hunger, disease, gender inequality, and poverty.

The funding is in addition to existing Gates Foundation commitments to multilateral organizations, including GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. These resources have helped strengthen health systems and increase access to health care in African countries, contributing to dramatic reductions in the rate of child deaths from maladies such as diarrheal diseases, pneumonia, malaria, and measles.

The commitment comes amid overlapping global crises that are worsening hunger, malnutrition, and poverty for millions. Even before the war in Ukraine disrupted the global food system, African countries faced severe climate shocks, including droughts, locusts, and flooding. According to the foundation, 278 million people across Africa suffer from chronic hunger, with more than 37 million people facing acute hunger in the Horn of Africa alone. The COVID-19 pandemic also has caused significant setbacks in immunization and stalled decades of progress made in combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.

“Every day, men and women across Africa are rising to meet the biggest challenges facing their families, communities, and countries,” said Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda French Gates. “The foundation will continue to invest in the researchers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and healthcare workers who are working to unlock the tremendous human potential that exists across the continent.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Armand Burger)