Foundations are a source of funding to support the work of a range of organizations making a difference in their communities. But often, they also help to strengthen a sector by connecting organizations to each other.

The recent AGAG segment of “Conversations With/Dialogues On” highlighted an example of this. The Global Fund for Children (GFC) organized a knowledge exchange workshop to bring together organizations working in english and french-speaking countries in West Africa focusing on children. If you missed it, I encourage you to listen to audio excerpts and read a summary on the AGAG website.

Networking is important and central to building and sharing knowledge. Unfortunately, it is often hard to trace specific results back to the connection of ideas and people made during these types of events. Yet, sharing our stories and what we have learned is at the center of our lives.

The McKnight Foundation Collaboration Crop Research Program is another example of making important connections. This competitive grants program connects researchers from many different countries working to increase food security for resource-poor people in developing countries. The collaborative research projects are grouped in “communities of practice” and includes a range of stakeholders including scientists and farmers. There are communities of practice in west, southern, east and the horn of Africa. The program links experts from countries across the globe.

In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation make a five year grant to the McKnight Foundation for $26.7 million dollars to support the project. The CCRP website is wealth of information about the projects including progress reports and impact. The leadership team pairs the McKnight International Program Director, Jane Maland Cady with the CCRP Scientific Director, Rebecca Nelson, who is employed by and based at Cornell University.

Two good examples of making connections and building knowledge useful in building strong communities in Africa. If you know of some other interesting examples, I invite you to share them with me. Send them to nmutima [at] agag.org.

In these times of tight resources, the question of what is working is an important one. So is how to measure it. Evaluation is big business. I am often reminded of a colleague who asked at a meeting about evaluation if we value what we measure or measure what we value? Good food for thought.

While big issues such as poverty and injustice loom as large systemic challenges, change is most dramatic when we see how it affects individuals. The Gates Foundation is a familiar name and its mega-grants often dwarf the resources of other foundations. In keeping its manner of doing things in a big way, the Foundation recently launched the Living Proof Project. It is a multi-year campaign designed to show how U.S.-supported initiatives to fight malaria, AIDS, and other diseases are saving and improving the lives of millions of people in developing countries. The web site tag line is “U. S. investments in global health are working.”

Check the videos, infographics and photo gallery and the reports of evidence of success. In addition to the website it has launched a television ad. Check it out. Maybe this will start a trend of foundations doing ads to show their impact. What do you think? Comments are welcome.

The need for a better national health care system is a topic of discussion not only in the United States but in African countries as well. Among funders supporting development efforts in Africa, the impact of funding and the consequences of the lack of coordination is an on-going and mostly frustrating conversation.

AGAG has done two reports on the U. S. private funding landscape for health in Africa. The first in 2004, examined support for health continent wide, and the second, in 2007 examined funding for health and basic education programs for children and youth in ten southern Africa countries. Both reports reflect the concentration of disease specific funding and the lack of support for other areas including strengthening health care systems.

Two members of AGAG have recently announced a significant investement in improving health systems in African countries.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) launched the African Health Initiative in 2007, to fund partnerships between local governments in selected African countries, researcher, and practioners.

DDCF announced four partnerships. Three of them will be in Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia. The fourth will support two countries, Tanzania and Ghana, in sharing their innovative pilot programs in primary health care and hopefully addressing the difficulties both countries have encountered in scaling them up to a national level.

DDCF’s total investment if about $44 million and the programs will last from 5 to 7 years. The grants range from $ 8 million for Rwanda to almost $15 million for Tanzania and Ghana.

Another AGAG member, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), also has a program to support health systems called the “Transforming Health Systems Initiative (THS).” The THS program launch was announced last month and includes two of the countries where DDCF will be working - Ghana and Rwanda. This program was launched with an initial investment of $100 million over five years for three countries (including Vietnam). The idea is to apply lessons learned to future programs.

In June, two articles in the journal The Lancet, raised some questions about the impact of global health funding in poor countries. The article on ” An assessment of interactions between global health initiatives and country health systems” addressed the charge that disease specific funding has weakened health systems in the poor countries. While inconclusive, it does encourage the opportunity to take advantage of opportunities to strengthen partnerships across areas of the health sector and among a range of actors — which is what both the DDCF and RF programs promote.

Another article in the same issue Financing of global health: tracking development assistance for health from 1990 to 2007 looks at the impact of the mix of old and new actors funding health.

Through the IROKO project, AGAG is seeking to bring together health funders to promote more dialogue and help funders to be more aware of each other’s efforts. I will be talking more about this project as it unfolds over the next few months. We are working on a landscape of health funders. If you fund health in Africa and would like to participate, please send me an email to info at africagrantmakers.org..