Partner since
2022
The Skoll Foundation supports the Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund, which is hosted by the Global Fund and was designed in partnership with the Africa Frontline First Initiative led by The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development, Last Mile Health, Community Health Impact Coalition and Financing Alliance for Health.
The Skoll Foundation seeks to catalyze transformational social change by investing in, connecting and championing social innovators who work together across sectors to advance bold and equitable solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, including health and pandemics.
“On the frontlines of pandemic response and prevention, community health workers are critical to bringing essential healthcare to the last mile. The Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund brings the power of social innovators together with the strength of the Global Fund to ensure that community health workers are paid, trained and equipped to maintain essential services and lead responses to COVID-19, Ebola and other outbreaks.”
Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation
Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation
A community health worker in Burkina Faso examines a child before administering an antimalaria prophylactic as part of a nationwide seasonal malaria chemoprevention campaign to reduce the prevalence of malaria in children. Malaria is the deadliest disease in Burkina Faso. Photo: The Global Fund/JB Russel/Panos
Community health systems are a proven high-value investment that can accelerate progress towards Universal Health Coverage, Global Health Security, and economic development. Despite their crucial role, approximately 80 percent of community health workers work without pay — and the majority are women. The Skoll Foundation’s investment in this catalytic fund reflects the moral and strategic imperative of investing in, and standing in solidarity with, community health workers.
Hosted by the Global Fund, the Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund (AFF-CF) aims to provide financing to accelerate performance and scale readiness of community health. By mobilizing US$100 million over the next three years, the Cataytic Fund supports the transformation of the work of 220,000 community health workers who serve an estimated 146 million people in the eight African countries eligible for the investment: Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Zambia.
The AFF-CF supports these countries to overcome the barriers limiting the scale, performance and sustainability of community health workers (CHWs) and the services they provide by strategically investing in five system domains:
- Financing for long-term sustainability, rooted in government financial plans, which blends donor and domestic funding.
- Human Resources for Health to develop and professionalize community health workers to be paid, supervised, supported and integrated into the national health workforce.
- Leadership and governance to assist government leadership in developing and implementing clear policies, processes and structures for health system strengthening.
- Digital tools and information systems to facilitate digital transformation across the whole community health sector.
- Supply-chain to develop regular forecasting and guarantee the availability of essential tools and equipment.
Pledge and contribution data updated on: 16 April 2024