Bayer Foundation

Since 2024, Bayer Foundation has committed over US$ 5.1 million to Gavi, largely through projects supported by the Gavi Matching Fund, to extend immunisation and primary health care to ‘zero-dose’ and under-immunised children and their communities; and to pilot innovative and blended finance solutions. The US$ 5.1 million led to additional catalytic funding of up to US$ 45 million in project financing from sovereign, philanthropic and private sector donors. 

The partnership began with the organisation Doctors for Madagascar, which received Bayer Foundation and Gavi support to bring primary health care and catch-up vaccination to under-served areas of southern Madagascar. It reached more than 40,000 zero-dose and under-vaccinated children in its first phase (2024–2026). In Nigeria, Bayer Foundation and the Gavi Matching Fund co-fund a US$ 3.38 million programme in Kaduna State. The programme works through a women’s economic empowerment platform to educate around 90,000 women on immunisation and vaccinate at least 40,000 women and children, with a focus on HPV vaccination and reaching zero-dose children.

Bayer Foundation is also a core co-funder of Gavi’s value-chain health portfolio. This portfolio works with agricultural companies to bring immunisation and primary health care to farming communities in their supply chains. With partners including Tony’s Chocolonely, Olam Agri, The Hershey Company, Mars, JDE Peet’s and UBS Optimus Foundation, programmes in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire take a combined approach: they strengthen health facilities and cold chains; run mobile clinics; support national health insurance enrolment; and introduce digital co-payment tools for cocoa-, cotton- and coffee-growing families.