This announcement is very encouraging. It would be even more powerful if the Gates Foundation would commit to the goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. Global health leaders challenged the Gates Foundation to do this in a Lancet paper back in 2006, the same year that HIFA was launched. To date, no funding agency, government or intergovernmental organisation has explicitly committeed to universal accesss. Only HIFA, IFLA, the World Medical Association and 400 HIFA supporting organisations have officially endorsed this goal. Only HIFA (to our knowledge) is actively working towards it, with near-zero resources and capacity (1.2 staff).
Gates Foundation Commits US$1 Billion to Help Build and Deliver Equitable AI That Improves Health and Expands Opportunity
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2026/0...
The funding, spread over two years, targets AI tools for healthcare workers, smallholder farmers, and teachers in low-income countries
The Goalkeepers Report identifies three areas where action now could help AI improve lives and livelihoods for more people in the years ahead:
1. Make AI tools work in every language people speak. More than 90% of the data used to train early large language models came from English-language sources, leaving many communities that could benefit from AI poorly represented in the data on which these tools were built.
2. Build AI tools for the contexts in which people will use them. Effective tools require data and expertise from the places and populations they are intended to serve, with countries and communities deciding how data is managed and protected.
3. Invest in people and access so communities can shape how AI works for them. Doctors, farmers, teachers, and developers need opportunities to learn how to evaluate AI tools and adapt what works to their own contexts. They also need affordable access to the technology, which will require action from technology companies as well as investment from governments and philanthropy.
It is also my view that simply pumping money into AI is insufficient with regards to the achievement of universal access to reliable healthcare information. A whole-systems perspective is needed to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem. www.hifa.org/ecosystem
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org