Jonas Bendikson
Building on many decades of work in African countries, the Rockefeller Foundation is now supporting innovative efforts to improve health systems
Over the next 10 years, improved crop varieties are expected to increase by 400, which—combined with Rockefeller Foundation work in 20 African countries—can contribute to eliminating hunger for 30 million people, and move 15 million out of poverty.
and to use agricultural advances to diminish poverty, hunger and malnutrition, among other projects.
The Foundation has invested millions of dollars in partnerships with African government entities as well as academic and civic institutions. These collaborations aim to tackle the major issues—from climate change to rapid urbanization—that are hindering the progress of so many people, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Our Strategy
The Foundation’s strategic funding promotes smart globalization. We foster equitable economic growth while building the abilities of households, communities, systems and countries to anticipate, prepare for and withstand current and emerging risks.
Outcomes of Foundation grants to organizations, institutions, and programs in countries in West, East, and Southern Africa are used as demonstration models that ultimately enhance lives throughout the continent and in other parts of the world.
Our Current Initiatives
The Rockefeller Foundation is focusing its support on five main initiatives benefiting Sub-Saharan Africa:
Strengthening Food Security:
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Increasing smallholder agricultural productivity with better seeds, soils, markets, financing, and agricultural policies
In 2006, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched AGRA, with a combined investment of $340 million, to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor farmers in targeted African countries. An African-based and African-led organization, AGRA is charged with increasing the productivity and profitability of small-scale farms throughout Africa. Since it is not enough simply to increase production, this initiative is also spearheading new methods of diversifying markets to absorb this increase.
Transforming Health Systems
Widening access to affordable, high quality health services by leveraging and coordinating resources
Building resilient, sustainable health systems and helping to bolster the basic survival of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people are two fundamental Foundation priorities. This initiative supports models for systemic health shifts, through African infrastructure and governance.
Developing Climate Change Resilience
Helping communities cope with imminent consequences of climate change
Research shows that climate change will hit already-struggling communities the hardest. The vast majority of African households depend, whether directly or indirectly, on agriculture for their livelihoods. The Foundation is therefore attempting to strengthen the adaptive capabilities of African smallholder farmers in anticipating and responding to climate change. Our support of the weather-index crop and livestock insurance project is one example of our innovative approach.
Linking Global Disease Surveillance Networks
Establishing transnational detection, monitoring, and communication systems to strengthen disease prevention
Particularly in developing countries, infectious diseases (such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, SARS, vian influenza and H1N1) do not just threaten health, but livelihoods as well. This initiative has helped form the East African Infectious Disease Surveillance Network, comprised of the ministries of health of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as academic institutions; and the Southern Africa Center for Infectious Disease Network, covering countries within the Southern Africa development community. These networks are building sustainable methods of exchanging and sharing information on communicable diseases that can improve both health and economic stability.
Harnessing the Power of Impact Investing
Expanding and increasing the effectiveness of investments that solve social and environmental problems and generate a profit
A growing number of African and international investors are interested in deals in Africa that offer both social and financial returns. The Foundation is working to build a global network of these investors around hubs of impact investing activity, including those in East, West and Southern Africa. Efforts are also underway to build impact investing infrastructure and support intermediaries focused on sectors of particular interest to impact investing, such as smallholder agriculture, low-income housing, health care, technology, and renewable energy.
Our Work in Exploration
Each time the Foundation identifies a new area of focus within one or more of our five issue areas, we begin to hone our strategy, during an exploratory phase. For instance, the Foundation is examining ways to ensure that carbon markets contribute to both mitigating climate change and reducing rural poverty in African countries and other parts of the developing world. (Through carbon markets, credits for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and for carbon sequestrations can be sold and traded.)
The Foundation is also supporting development organizations in improving their service delivery to poor and vulnerable communities through outsourcing and shared services for their front and back office operations. These services are delivered by people in low-income countries and underprivileged populations. This practice generates new jobs, economic growth, and innovation among people very much in need.
Our Africa Regional Office
Established in 1966, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office is located in Nairobi, Kenya. For more information, contact
Rockefeller Foundation
Eden Square Building, Block 1, 2nd Floor
Greenway Lane, off Westlands Road
P.O. Box 14531 Westlands, 00800
Nairobi, Kenya.
Telephones : +254. 20. 3742 726/ 3742 727
Fax Line: +254. 20. 3675 260
