Global health challenges call for funder collaboratives for global health that are national, regional, or continent-wide in scope. This makes partnership with national and subnational governments essential, as government leadership, resources, and policies undergird sustained change. But what does that look like in practice, and what can funder collaboratives do to set their collaborative efforts up for success?

The Beginnings Fund, a global health collaborative launched today that brings together donors from the Middle East, Global North, and Global South, offers one example. The fund is already working with Ministries of Health, researchers, and health workers to tackle all preventable maternal and newborn deaths in countries in Africa, where a death occurs every 14 seconds from complications in pregnancy, birth, or after birth.

Another example is a donor collaboration that worked with government to help Niger become the first African country to eliminate transmission of river blindness, a parasitic health scourge that affects nearly a quarter of a billion people globally. Niger’s stunning achievement, 45 years in the making, demonstrates the power of government effort amplified by collaborative funding—in this case, from the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF), a coalition of countries and donors established by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, in partnership with the Gates Foundation.

These collaboratives offer valuable insights—including how to hone in on the right problem, assemble the right groups to identify and implement a solution, and build a strong coalition—for any philanthropist looking to make a difference in global health.

Identifying the Right Problem to Support Funder Collaboratives for Global Health

Philanthropy can never replace the depth and reach of government resources and institutions, but there are sweet spots where collaborative funds can make a significant difference. Specifically, funders should determine whether the social problem they want to address is preventable, whether there are existing solutions they can adapt and scale, and whether there is opportunity to pool resources to that end.

Despite strides in reducing maternal mortality, about 260,000 women die annually in pregnancy and childbirth from preventable causes such as eclampsia, sepsis, or post-partem hemorrhage. Meanwhile, 2.3 million newborns die mostly from preventable issues such as fluid in their airways or infection—complications that modern medicine routinely treats.

Read the full article about funder collaboratives for global health by Alice Kang’ethe at Stanford Social Innovation Review.