The Rockefeller Foundation’s work in Africa has focused on critical issues surrounding poverty and economic instability. The foundation has succeeded in saving and improving lives by focusing on health, population, education and agriculture, and leveraging resources from a range of partners, including government, industry and other funders. Through the years, the Foundation’s support has led to the development of vaccines for deadly diseases, greater access to higher education, and improved crop varieties for famers and ultimately had a major impact for communities across the continent.
Early Years:
- Between 1913 and the 1930s, the Foundation supported critical yellow fever research in Africa. All yellow fever vaccines manufactured today are based on this research, conducted with support from the Rockefeller foundation.
- During the early 1960’s the Foundation launched a 20-year University Development program that aided in the development of agriculture, public health, medicine, and social science departments in countries throughout Africa. From 1961 through 1974, of the $125 million the Foundation spent on the University Development Program (an equivalent of $550 million), more than $40 million was granted to Africa alone, and over 500 fellowships were awarded for Ph.D. studies across the continent.
- The Foundation provided initial support for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, established in 1967 and headquartered in Nigeria. The Institute’s cutting edge research into the development of drought, disease, and pest-resistant cassava and maize has provided food to tens of millions of people throughout Africa.
Late 20th Century:
- In 1973, the Foundation established the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases, which served as the initial organizational infrastructure for what later became the International Livestock Research Institute. Currently employing more than 700 staff in over 40 countries, the Institute, since Rockefeller’s initial support, has become one of the world’s leading research centers working at the intersection of livestock and poverty.
- In an effort to analyze the relationship between the United States and Southern Africa, with a focus on the political, social, and economic situation in South Africa, the Foundation convened a study in 1977. The final report, South Africa: time Running Out, which was ultimately released in 1981, was influential in developing an integrated policy framework in the U.S. for action by the government and private sector and is credited with leading to increased opposition to the apartheid regime.
2000s:
- In 2000, the Rockefeller Foundation, along with the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation of New York, launched the partnership for higher education in Africa to coordinate support for higher education in Africa. In its first six years, from 2000 through 2005, the Partnership contributed more than $150 million to build core capacity and support special initiatives at universities in Africa. The partnership has since supported 49 universities in nine countries.
- In 2001, the Foundation helped to start the Mother-to-Child transmission Plus initiative, which works to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV by providing treatment for HIV/AIDS infected mothers. The program also treats the infected children. This approach has been implemented through 14 clinical programs based in nine countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The initiative has provided life-saving care and treatment to more than 13,000 adults and children.
- In 2006, the Foundation, along with other donors, helped establish the African Agricultural Capital, a venture that invests in small and medium-sized agriculture-related businesses in East Africa. Rockefeller’s investment has strengthened programs to help local businesses deliver improved seeds and soil enhancement packages to small-scale farmers, helping to advance agriculture and recue poverty in African countries. Additionally, in 2006 the Foundation directed $1 million toward the Africa Fertilizer Summit, which brought together 40 African governments to promote the removal of taxes and tariffs on fertilizer, support and emerging network, and create a program to finance the production and distribution of fertilizer.
- In 2006, the Foundation began in initiative to replicated its earlier success in agriculture production in Latin America, the Green Revolution. The foundation along with partners committed $340 million toward improving African agriculture as part of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Built on the lessons learned from the Rockefeller’s past commitments to improving agriculture and the foundation’s institutional history which began in the mid-twentieth century with Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rockefeller Foundation agricultural scientist Dr. Normal Borlaug, AGRA’s goal is to ultimately improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor farmers in Africa.
