Philanthropy can help make every dollar deliver more impact.

I often think about a boy I met in Kajiado County, Kenya. He was the same age as my son, but half his weight. A World Health Organization (WHO) colleague measured the circumference of his arm to confirm what was already painfully clear: he was severely malnourished and needed urgent medical care.

He and his mother had walked to a clinic not far from fields of dead animals, victims of prolonged drought linked to climate change. It was one point in a chain of dominoes – failed rains, lost livestock, rising food insecurity, overwhelmed health systems – that would determine whether this child would have the chance to realize his full potential.

As governments reduce aid budgets and global health institutions confront growing financial pressure, it is imperative that we ground ourselves in how our decisions affect lives such as his.

Imperative to turn resources into sustained impact

The current crisis in global health is often described as a crisis of insufficient funding. That is true. But it is also something deeper: a growing imperative to turn resources into sustained impact more effectively.

In the past twenty-five years, global health financing has driven extraordinary progress against infectious diseases. Investments through organizations such as Gavi and the Global Fund cut child mortality in half and saved nearly 100 million lives. Those investments built systems that benefit everyone, from rapid vaccine development during COVID to catch-up immunization campaigns reaching millions of children.

Over that same period, the global health landscape has changed. Many countries are transitioning from low- to middle-income status and rightly want greater ownership of their own health priorities and systems. The burden of disease is increasingly shifting toward noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health conditions, whose prevention and treatment depend on strong regional and national health systems.

Identifying, scaling and sustaining what works

In this new environment, the WHO’s role becomes even more important.

WHO’s greatest value is not that it delivers services directly. Its value lies in helping countries identify, scale, and sustain what works: setting evidence-based norms and guidelines, coordinating surveillance and emergency response, convening governments around shared priorities, and supporting countries to adapt global knowledge into effective national action.

In the last year alone, the WHO helped additional countries eliminate neglected tropical diseases; prequalified the first malaria treatment for newborns and infants; and negotiated concrete global targets to control NCDs and promote mental health. In a more fragmented world, this work underscores why trusted global institutions are becoming more – not less – important.

This is also where philanthropy can play a transformative role. Not because philanthropy can replace governments; it cannot. Public financing will remain the foundation of global health. But philanthropy can help improve how all financing is mobilized and used.

Globally, charitable giving represents an enormous source of social investment – roughly $2 trillion annually. (For perspective, that is roughly 100 times larger than government aid for global health.) Yet only a small fraction supports global health, and an even smaller share strengthens the systems required to deliver health interventions at scale.

Some of the most compelling examples of WHO’s role are not always the most visible

In my experience, mobilizing philanthropic capital requires clear theories of change, measurable outcomes, accountability for results, and the ability to adapt based on evidence. It requires organizations to explain not only what they will do, but why it matters, how progress will be measured, and how local institutions and communities will ultimately sustain impact.

Those disciplines improve the effectiveness not only of philanthropic dollars, but of all dollars invested in global health.

In its first five years, the WHO Foundation raised $214 million from charitable sources, including support from 84 new donors to the WHO, generating $4.40 in commitments for every dollar invested in fundraising. Our experience reinforces a simple lesson: philanthropy responds not only to need, but to clarity, trusted partnerships, measurable outcomes, and the confidence that institutions can deliver meaningful impact at scale.

Some of the most compelling examples are not the most visible.

WHO-supported measles surveillance networks, spanning hundreds of laboratories across more than 190 nations, help countries detect outbreaks early and sustain routine immunization. WHO’s Basic Emergency Care program has trained frontline health workers in low-resource settings to reduce mortality from trauma, sepsis, and shock. WHO’s work on mental health is helping countries integrate care into primary health systems, expanding access where services have historically been absent altogether.

Philanthropy can help accelerate the impact of global health investments

None of these efforts depend on philanthropy alone. But philanthropy can help accelerate them, strengthen accountability around them, drive new evidence, and demonstrate models that governments and national systems can sustain and scale over time.

As global health leaders gather in Geneva for this year’s World Health Assembly, the conversation cannot simply be about how much money has been lost. It must also be about how effectively we use the money that remains – and how we build institutions capable of turning resources into measurable, equitable, and sustainable impact.

I think again of the boy and his mother in Kajiado County.

They do not care whether help comes from governments or philanthropies. They care whether systems work. Whether medicines and vaccines are available. Whether a health worker shows up before it is too late.

Yes, global health needs more money. But it also needs the discipline, partnerships, and institutions capable of turning resources into lives saved — consistently and at scale. In a period of shrinking aid budgets, that may matter as much as the funding itself.

Image Credits: Christine Olson/Flickr, WHO Global Report on Hypertension/Natalie Naccache, Temwanani Mtonga/ Gavi, WHO .