This year, for the first time, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) includes in its aid data grants made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in global health.

The data show that in 2009, the Gates Foundation disbursed USD 1.8 billion in grants to improve health in developing countries, including support for vaccines, polio, HIV/AIDS, malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis (TB), diarrheal diseases, other infectious diseases, family planning, nutrition, and maternal, newborn and child health. This made the Gates Foundation the third largest international donor of aid to health after the United States and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

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In collaboration with the Statistics and Monitoring Division of the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate (DCD, which serves as the OECD DAC Secretariat), the Gates Foundation has reported their health data at the activity level. These data represent 2009 concessional outflows from a private foundation and are included in DAC statistics as part of “net private grants” from the United States. They are not official development assistance (ODA)  and are not to be confused with aid from the United States Government.

by Kimberly Smith, OECD Development Co-operation Directorate, April 2011

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