Strategic and analytical support to the Gates Foundation Southern Africa office

Since 2021, we have provided strategic and analytical support to the Gates Foundation's Southern Africa Team. Our support has focused on reinforcing the foundation’s efforts to align investments with local priorities and maximise regional impact.

Our collaboration began during the COVID-19 pandemic, where we played a critical role in tracking emerging trends, developing data-driven insights, and shaping South Africa’s vaccine rollout strategy. As the pandemic eased, our focus with the foundation shifted to investment planning, stakeholder engagement, and strategic alignment within the foundation’s Southern Africa portfolio.

Key contributions:

• Supporting the development and refinement of the South Africa Country Plan and the Coordinated Plan for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• Conducting landscape analyses, early-stage due diligence, and investment planning to inform funding decisions.

• Assisting in the conceptualisation of strategic investments, including those focused on gender equality, policy innovation, research capacity-building and data harmonisation.

• Providing direct support to the regional representative to ensure investment alignment with foundation objectives and government priorities as well as helping drive greater diversity within the foundation’s grantee pool.

Throughout our investment partnership we have remained adaptable and responsive to the needs of the foundation and country priorities. This has strengthened the foundation’s strategic engagement in Southern Africa. 

Our work has empowered the Southern Africa team to plan and execute investments more effectively and efficiently, ensuring a lasting impact on public health, governance, and innovation in the region.