This year has been pivotal in strengthening the impact of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance as a trusted neutral convener, catalyst, and connector. We are proud to champion our members and help transform how diverse sectors collaborate to address the complex global health challenges of our time.

With gratitude for our 90+ members spanning the globe — including world-class academic institutions, innovative technology companies, start-ups, public sector organizations, and nonprofits serving the world’s most marginalized populations — we celebrate the diversity and reach of our network. Nearly 40% of our members are tech-focused, and 14% are based in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), reflecting our commitment to inclusivity and impact.

Every success we’ve achieved is rooted in our partnership with members and our collective dedication to advancing global health innovation and equity. As we close this year, we remain steadfast in our commitment to this trusted and growing community. We embrace our role as a catalyst for cross-sector collaboration, engaging the tech sector with traditional global health stakeholders, fostering connections and opportunities for members, and collectively generating insights and innovative solutions that improve health outcomes and lives.

2024 Highlights

What follows are a few of our programmatic highlights. Themes such as the interconnectedness and complexity of global health challenges, the necessity of collaborative, community-driven solutions, the transformative power of technology, the value of cross-sector partnerships, and the critical role of innovative financing for healthcare in emerging markets shaped our events throughout the year.

AI and Global Health

The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and global health presents transformative opportunities to revolutionize healthcare, expand access, and address critical global health challenges. Building on the momentum from the Alliance’s AI panel at the 2023 Annual Meeting and its participation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Roundtable on AI and Global Health in October 2023, members expressed a strong interest in deeper exploration of AI’s implications and opportunities.

AI and Global Health Discussion Series

Sponsored by Pfizer, the Alliance launched a discussion series to explore AI’s rapidly evolving role in global health. Featuring diverse use cases, the series showcased how Alliance members and partners are leveraging AI to drive innovation. It brought together donors, AI labs, implementing organizations, LMIC government representatives, academics, and policymakers to examine AI’s transformative potential. The sessions included:

• AI Demystified: Practical Insights and Real-World Applications
• Navigating Imperfect Data: Challenges and Solutions for AI-Powered Healthcare in Low-Resource Settings
• Empowering Frontline Health Workers with AI: Navigating Pitfalls and Possibilities
• Smart Health, Smart Choices: Leveraging AI for Behavior Change in Global Health – This final session for 2024, in partnership with Population Services International (PSI), was held virtually and in Nairobi on December 3, serving as a precursor to the Global Digital Health Forum.

The series provided actionable insights for both AI newcomers and experts, emphasizing responsible and ethical implementation in global health. Given strong member engagement, the Alliance plans to continue this series in 2025.

Optimizing and Accelerating AI for Health Behavior Change

The Alliance is a dissemination partner for the Advancing Health Online (AHO) initiative, a collaboration between Merck and Meta. In partnership with AHO, Stanford’s Center for Digital Health and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences are leading efforts to collect and synthesize data to identify how Generative AI (GenAI) can most effectively drive behavior change and improve health outcomes. The Alliance is working with AHO and Stanford to amplify these learnings, foster dialogue, and attract attention and investment in this rapidly growing field.

Advancing GenAI for the Sustainable Development Goals

As global leaders gathered in New York for UNGA 79 and Climate Week in September to ensure that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remain at the forefront of the global agenda, on the sidelines, the Alliance, Accenture, and other partners co-hosted an evening networking reception that explored how the SDGs can be advanced through GenAI. Alliance members Google, RAIsonance Inc., Reach Digital Health, Simprints, and Viamo demonstrated inspiring use cases of how GenAI can advance the SDGs, as well as the opportunities and challenges they encountered in the process of utilizing innovative technologies to drive impactful change.

 

Global Health Investments and Innovative Financing 

As traditional global health funding faces mounting challenges, private capital, impact investing, and innovative financing are increasingly critical. In alignment with our mission, the Alliance is fostering multi-sector dialogues to catalyze greater private-sector investment in healthcare across emerging markets.

J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2024

At the prestigious 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, the Alliance hosted the panel Reimagining Healthcare in Emerging Markets: The Future of Healthcare Innovation and Investment. It was one of the first panels the conference has held on emerging markets. The discussion made a compelling investment case for healthcare in emerging markets, showcasing how high returns can align with social impact. Panelists shared actionable insights on leveraging private capital to transform healthcare systems and expand access in LMICs. We followed this main-stage discussion with a reception and fireside chat with former White House Senior Official Raj Panjabi for our members. We are grateful to Accenture for hosting the reception.

The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Convening Program 

In December, through the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Convening Program, Baraka Impact Finance and the Alliance co-hosted a convening at the Bellagio Center titled Igniting Scale: Private Sector Finance for Global Health in Emerging and Frontier Markets. This four-day meeting brought together a diverse brain trust of global health financing experts to design innovative strategies that help build the investment case and enhance health equity, affordability, quality, and access for underserved populations. The goal was to identify pathways for increasing private-sector investments in healthcare across emerging and frontier markets.

J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2025

Building on insights from the Bellagio convening and our JPM 2024 panel, the Alliance will host another panel, Realizing Returns: Investment Opportunities in Emerging Markets, at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference 2025 (JPM 2025) on January 15. While main-stage passes are unfortunately not available for members this January, we are hosting an exclusive post-event gathering, Private Sector Finance for Global Health: Investing for Impact and Equity | A Conversation and Member Reception, to engage our member network in continued discussions on investment opportunities.

Outcomes-Based Financing as a Tool to Curb AMR in LMICs 

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the most pressing public health challenges of the 21st century, particularly in LMICs, where economic and social factors exacerbate the misuse of antibiotics. At the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, PATH, in partnership with the Alliance and Pfizer, announced a Commitment to Action to tackle AMR through an innovative outcomes-based financing mechanism. This approach aims to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship by addressing behavioral and market incentives that drive the overuse of antibiotics, fostering sustainable solutions to curb AMR in resource-limited settings.

 

Importance of Multi-Sectoral Collaboration and Partnership

The Alliance’s theory of change is based on the assumption that collaboration across sectors, expertise, and geographies is necessary to solve today’s complex global health challenges. We unite organizations across sectors, rooted in shared values and a commitment to cultivating a community built on trust and collaborative mindsets. Together, we embrace continuous multi-directional learnings and work to expand access to innovative solutions, driving our collective mission to achieve global health equity and innovation. In 2024, we deepened our exploration of partnerships, surfacing critical insights to improve health outcomes and strengthen multi-sector collaboration.

Implementation Science and Health Equity and the Role of Multi-Sectoral Partnerships

Despite significant advancements and investments in global health, many evidence-based interventions fail to reach their full potential, often due to systemic barriers that exacerbate inequities. Our insights report, Implementing for Health Equity: Narrowing the Know-Do Gap, explores these challenges through the lens of implementation science. Drawing on the expertise of nearly 150 global health leaders from diverse sectors, the report identifies key barriers to effective implementation and offers strategies to improve the design, scalability, and impact of health solutions. Seven of the four major barriers identified in the insights report were directly tied to multi-sectoral partnership challenges. We are conducting further research on optimizing multi-sectoral global health partnerships to generate actionable evidence and advocate for stronger collaboration. Insights from interviews with global leaders and a November 12 design workshop are informing best practices, solutions, and advocacy efforts. This project will continue through mid-2025. We are grateful to Gilead Sciences for supporting this exploration.

UC Davis Pandemic Preparedness Roadmap

With UC Davis in the lead, the Alliance collaborated with a multi-sector group of pandemic responders to reflect on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings informed the Pandemic Preparedness Roadmap, launched in May 2024, which outlines strategies for integrating academic and private sectors into pandemic preparedness and prevention. Recommendations from the roadmap have been incorporated into Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s draft One Health Security Act, which is expected to be reintroduced in the next Congress.

Alliance’s 4th Annual Meeting

Our fourth Annual Meeting underscored the importance of collaboration in tackling global health challenges. The event featured panels on women’s health equity, climate and health, and cross-sector partnerships, with contributions from Wellcome Trust and members Africa Health Business, Americares, Chevron, Cross-Border Impact Ventures, Gilead Sciences, Google, Medicines360, Merck for Mothers, PATH, Roche Diagnostics, Stanford Mussallem Center for Biodesign, and UC Berkeley. Attendees explored innovative strategies to enhance cross-sector cooperation and advance shared goals. The Annual Meeting also provided an opportunity to network and forge new connections, a hallmark of our hybrid meetings as well as at UNGA and other global health conferences throughout the year. We are grateful to Accenture for hosting us. 

Academic Engagement

The Alliance is deeply grateful to our founding academic members — Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UCSF, and UC Davis — for their invaluable partnership and expertise. With board guidance, we’ve worked together to strengthen campus engagement and support the next generation of global health leaders. In 2024, we supported the new Innovation & Health Equity Discussion Series with Stanford Biodesign and Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Global Health, driven by students and early-career professionals (watch the health equity discussions here). A multi-sector panel on Insights into Global Health Careers fostered dialogue and mentorship, while graduate students from UC Berkeley’s Board Fellows enriched our work with governance support and student engagement initiatives. Looking ahead to 2025, we will expand these efforts, beginning with a January 22 event co-hosted with academic partners and the Lancet Commission to explore Global Health 2050: The Path to Halving Premature Death by Mid-Century. This event, with Commissioners from UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford, will inspire hope and action to tackle global health challenges. We hope you’ll join us.

 

Our Foundation and Future

“Global health really is a team effort,” said Colin Boyle, Alliance board chair and lecturer at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, at our 2024 Annual Meeting — and we couldn’t agree more. Since 2020, the Alliance has been forging cross-sector connections, facilitating knowledge sharing, and leveraging the Bay Area’s unique tech and innovation ethos to drive global health impact and equity.

Over the past nearly five years, with steadfast support from our members and board, we’ve built bridges and networks that are beginning to transform how diverse sectors collaborate locally and globally. Through virtual programming, strategic matchmaking, and events, we’ve helped foster new approaches and equitable access.

Our 2022 Member Listening Tour highlighted the value members place on our tailored networking, insights on global health trends, and amplification of members’ global health news in our Connections newsletter and other communications channels. This was further validated in 2024 by a pro-bono analysis from member Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which highlighted our critical role in cultivating cross-sector collaboration, expanding global health knowledge, and integrating the tech sector with traditional global health stakeholders.

As we approach our fifth anniversary in 2025, we remain committed to catalyzing partnerships, hosting impactful convenings, and delivering actionable collective intelligence to empower our members and drive innovation. Together, we aim to redefine what’s possible, creating a healthier, more sustainable world.

We are profoundly grateful to our dedicated board of directors and to each of our members for their leadership and unwavering support. We look forward to building on this vital work — together.

Thank you.

 

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2024 Gallery