Partnering for impact: The Gates Foundation and Enabel’s commitment to resilient health systems

As malaria remains a major global health challenge, the Gates Foundation and Enabel are working together to accelerate progress toward eradication. Gargee Ghosh, President of Global Policy & Advocacy at the Gates Foundation, explains how this collaboration is strengthening health systems and fostering innovative solutions.

Why did the Gates Foundation decide to partner with Enabel in the fight to eradicate malaria?

Our work is grounded in the belief that all people, especially those in disadvantaged communities around the world, should be able to live healthy and productive lives. We do this work with partners around the world and had already been collaborating with the Belgian Government on sleeping sickness elimination in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This partnership led to a conversation to explore further collaboration, and we saw an opportunity to bring the Belgian Government and Enabel’s efforts in health systems strengthening together with our efforts in malaria.

Malaria eradication requires strong health systems to ensure access to quality care. Similarly, strengthening health systems can benefit from controlling malaria, which can reduce the burden on health facilities. In some regions, more than 50% of medical consultations are due to malaria. Enabel was an attractive partner for the foundation given its geographical footprint, on-the-ground expertise, and strong partner government relationships.

Can you provide an overview of our partnership’s key achievements in Niger and Burundi? From your perspective, what have been the most impactful activities?

Systems strengthening takes time, so it is still early to see the full impact of our partnership. The effects on malaria will become more evident once the programme is fully operational. However, we are already seeing significant progress on the country roadmaps towards the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria funding applications, for which Enabel provides support to the malaria programme. Additionally, there is an exciting collaboration between Enabel and Audere in digital health, and the partnership between Enabel and Blue Square on malaria surveillance is also extremely promising.

How do you see Enabel’s role in complementing the Gates Foundation’s priorities in malaria eradication?

Enabel’s expertise and in-country presence are invaluable in building stronger health systems, together with and in support of malaria-endemic governments. This will be a critical component of the broader, long-term eradication effort. Enabel’s operational capacity, local expertise, and stakeholder engagement complement the Foundation’s priorities by ensuring that interventions are contextually relevant and effectively implemented.

Our current partnership also includes the participation of Blue Square, a Belgian company specialising in innovative health information systems, to strengthen malaria surveillance. How do you see the role of public-private partnerships evolving in the international development sector?

The private sector is an important player in global health and development, with its varied partners offering specific expertise and driving innovation. Blue Square’s work specifically in data management, integration, and visualisation, combined with their innovative approaches to collecting data from campaigns and routine systems, is a great example. Public-private partnerships enable us to leverage the strengths of both sectors, based on shared values, fostering innovation, efficiency, and sustainability in international development efforts.

These partnerships are increasingly important in an evolving development landscape, as the public and philanthropic sectors are able to de-risk projects and investments to help encourage private sector engagement in low-income contexts that may have previously been perceived as too risky.

What role do philanthropy and organizations like the Gates Foundation play in advancing evidence-based gender equality policies?

Systemic change requires a lot of people working together, pooling resources and expertise to solve the most pressing health and development challenges – including gender inequality. We know that gender inequality not only holds women and girls back, but men and boys, too, stifling progress and economic growth. Philanthropy is uniquely positioned to advance progress on gender equality by funding under-funded areas like data collection, providing catalytic capital, and taking risks the private sector or government might not be able to take.

The Gates Foundation is currently focused on investing in women and girls in the areas that unlock the highest returns and advance gender equality: access to capital, expanding caregiving options for working parents, and supporting women’s health, including via access to contraceptives. We act as a catalyst—partnering with governments, multilaterals, and the private sector to discover and scale what works. By advancing evidence-based policies, we aim to create lasting, systemic change that promotes gender equality.

The Gates Foundation has been at the forefront of global health initiatives—what do you think sets your approach apart? How does the Foundation’s vision and commitment to eradicating malaria influence global efforts and partnerships like ours?

The Gates Foundation’s approach to global health initiatives is grounded in evidence, collaboration, and impact-driven solutions. What truly sets us apart is our unwavering commitment to tackling some of the world’s most complex health challenges, like malaria, through innovation and partnership.

We are also guided by a belief that every life has equal value, and that survival shouldn’t depend on where you were born. Malaria eradication is an equity issue. Half of the world has eliminated malaria, and several regions are close to also doing so (Europe, Central America, Greater Mekong). It would be entirely inequitable to say that we should not eliminate this disease from the rest of the world. We hope that others are inspired by partnerships like ours to join us in this mission.

What could be potential future areas of collaboration between our two organisations?

We hope we can further expand our collaboration on malaria, continue our long-standing partnership on sleeping sickness, expand to addressing other infectious diseases, and work together to ensure equitable access to quality health products. Together, we can leverage our combined expertise and resources to achieve greater impact than if we work alone.