Development Co‑operation Profiles: Wellcome Trust
Table of contents
Wellcome is a global charitable foundation established in 1936 after the death of Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur.
Wellcome’s vision is a healthier future for everyone. Since Wellcome’s creation, this foundation has supported breakthroughs in scientific discoveries and advocated for policies to improve health for everyone. Today, Wellcome supports science in solving the urgent health challenges facing everyone. It has four programmes of work: one for discovery research, and three to find solutions for the challenges of mental health, climate and health, and infectious diseases.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocation. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
Wellcome Trust provided USD 887.7 million for development in 2023 through its grantmaking activities. Compared to 2022, this amount represents an increase of 107% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of the Wellcome Trust’s gross disbursements.
In 2023, the Wellcome Trust channelled its bilateral development finance mainly through universities, research institutes or think-tanks (USD 804.5 million) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 38.1 million).
In 2023, the Wellcome Trust provided USD 25.1 million to the multilateral system, representing 2.8% of its total development finance. All of this was earmarked for specific countries, regions, themes or purposes. Forty-three per cent of these multilateral contributions were channelled through United Nations organisations (UN), European Union (EU) Institutions and UN funds and programmes
The UN system received USD 7.6 million from the Wellcome Trust in 2023. The most significant UN recipients were WHO - Core Voluntary Contributions Account (CVCA) (USD 7.3 million) and UNICEF (USD 300 thousand).
See the section on Geographic and thematic focus of ODA for the breakdown of bilateral allocations, including ODA earmarked through the multilateral development system.
In 2023, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 38.1 million of the Wellcome Trust’s gross bilateral finance, of which 26.2% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 4.3% was earmarked for specific projects or programmes, while none of the contributions were allocated to CSOs as core support. From 2022 to 2023, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs decreased as a share of bilateral ODA, from 21.5% to 4.3%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2023, Wellcome Trust’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Asia (excluding the Middle East). USD 387.8 million was allocated to Africa and USD 56.2 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting for 43.7% and 6.3% of gross bilateral development finance respectively. A sum of USD 420.9 million (47.4%) was unspecified by region in 2023, mainly including multi-regional programmes, core support and research grants.
In 2023, 31.2% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.
Least developed countries (LDCs) received respectively, USD 91 million (10.2%) of Wellcome Trust’s gross disbursements in 2023. Wellcome Trust allocated the highest share (15.2%) of its bilateral development finance to upper middle-income countries in 2023, followed by lower middle-income countries (14%), noting that USD 537.3 million (60.5%) was unallocated by income group.
Furthermore, the Wellcome Trust allocated USD 74.8 million of its development finance to landlocked developing countries in 2023, and USD 2.9 million to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2023. The main SIDS recipients are Papua New Guinea and Fiji.
In 2023, the Wellcome Trust provided Ukraine USD 1.6 million of gross development finance to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 183.7 million in 2023, representing 20.7% of the Wellcome Trust’s bilateral development finance. Of this, contexts with extremely fragility received a sum of USD 15.1 million.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2023, all of Wellcome Trust’s allocations went to social infrastructure and services. Investments in this area amounted to USD 887.7 million.
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://wellcome.org
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including the grant-equivalent methodology, core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, country programmable aid, channels of delivery, bilateral ODA unspecified/unallocated, bilateral allocable ODA, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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