The Bay Area Global Health Alliance’s mission is to advance global health innovation and impact for all and improve health outcomes by connecting and convening its cross-sector, multi-disciplinary members, and partners.

Our Values

Our theory of change is based on the assumption that collaboration across multiple sectors, expertise, and geographies is necessary to solve today’s complex global health challenges. We believe in the catalytic power of shared knowledge and cross-sector collaboration, that together, we can shift what is possible and achieve better and more sustainable health outcomes for all. A dedication to working together for innovation and impact for all unites us and is our strength.

As a multi-sector Alliance with more than 90 members, we are aligned organizations with shared values and commitments to:

• Global health impact for all and innovation, facilitating access to innovative solutions and resources for the world’s most marginalized individuals and communities

• Engagement of the tech sector and its innovation ethos with traditional global health stakeholders, which has the potential to transform global health by designing what is appropriate, affordable, acceptable, and accessible to those who need it most

• Collaborative mindset and building community with trust, respect, and shared integrity as crucial foundational elements

• Deliberate and intentional inclusivity, which includes innovation that puts people at the center, supports locally led solutions and diminishes barriers that may have prevented organizations from previously working together

• Continuous multi-directional learnings, candid, evidence-based dialogues, and trusted conversations that reach across communities, organizations, and geographies to catalyze technology, high-quality research, development, and delivery of health care for all

Our Core Strengths

Our core strengths are convening, communications, fostering collaboration, and 1:1 connections. Even as a young organization, the Alliance has demonstrated proof of success, including forging strategic partnerships, such as the Advancing Health Online (AHO) and Insights Dialogue initiatives, and the WHO Tech Task Force, for which the Alliance has served as secretariat.

The Alliance has built a trusted community that has facilitated innovative programs, partnerships, and mechanisms for elevating our collective intelligence, such as:

• Merck/Meta $40M original AHO collaboration to accelerate the use of social media and digital platforms for social and behavioral change communication
• Initiation of inaugural 2024 AI and Global Health Discussion Series, sponsored by Pfizer, to surface AI use cases in LMICs and explore both challenges and opportunities for future investment. The quarterly virtual series convened a multisector audience, including donors of AI initiatives, AI labs, implementing organizations, LMIC government representatives, academics and policy makers
• Hosting panel discussions in January 2024 and 2025 at the renowned J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, which presented compelling — and practical — investment cases for healthcare in emerging markets, as panelists shared thoughts on how and why it is possible to simultaneously achieve high returns on investments and contribute to global health impact for all
• Participation in the invitation-only October 2023 White House Roundtable on AI and Health and subsequent June 2024 White House AI Aspirations: R&D for Public Missions Conference, through the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which allowed the Alliance to represent our member’s collective voice on challenges and opportunities for improving public and global health
• Partnership with Gilead and multi-sector leadership from our board to explore implementation for impact for all and release an insights report, Implementing for Health Equity: Narrowing the Know-Do Gap. The effort focuses on identifying practical, actionable solutions to enhance scalability and promote a shift in thinking from the outset, specifically emphasizing last-mile delivery considerations, using the lens of implementation science to advance health impact for all.
• In partnership with country stakeholders and global partners, PATH, Pfizer, the Alliance, and board experts are exploring the co-creation of an outcomes-based financing (OBF) mechanism to incentivize antimicrobial stewardship efforts to curb AMR, specifically in LMICs; a Commitment to Action, Outcomes-Based Financing as a Tool to Curb AMR in LMICs, was announced during the Clinton Global Initiative 2024 Annual Meeting
• First Bay Area Global Health Alliance award presented to Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in collaboration with Alliance members, UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, Public Health Institute and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation for her leadership in HIV/AIDS and global health
• Co-hosting the Bay Area launch of the Lancet Commission Global Health 2050 Report with Alliance members UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, Stanford Center for Global Health Innovation, and UC Berkeley Public Health
• Having served as the secretariat of the WHO Tech Task Force, with virtual monthly convenings highlighting digital solutions to pressing health challenges, and including in-person meetings with 30+ tech and global health organizations
• Monthly Connections Newsletter (distribution to ~9K global health leaders, practitioners, implementers, funders, students, and researchers)

The Alliance is also well-positioned to mobilize, build awareness, and advocate to drive policies that advance health impact for all and save lives. The network includes leading advocacy coalitions, such as the Global Health Council, Global Health Technology Coalition, Consortium of Universities in Global Health, and the advocacy arm of the Global Fund, as well as decades of advocacy and policy expertise and experience driving social change among the board and secretariat.

Our Journey

With roots in the Bay Area, the Alliance has expanded to include organizations from across the United States and the world. Our vision for impact has also grown to become increasingly global in scope. The Bay Area Global Health Alliance was founded to bring together our region’s fragmented global health community, harness and amplify our collective expertise, and facilitate connections across diverse sectors to accelerate health impact in the communities we serve. The Bay Area Global Health Alliance was formed with input from 120+ Bay Area organization stakeholders and seed funding from Chevron, Gilead Sciences, Merck for Mothers, PATH, and leading universities. We are building on the experience of global health alliances around the world, such as the Global Health Council, the Washington Global Health Alliance, and the North Carolina Global Health Alliance.

Over the last four years, we have been able to build bridges that are beginning to transform how these diverse sectors work together in our region, and beyond. The pandemic led us to focus more globally, with additional opportunities and online offerings. Our membership has grown from California to New York to Guatemala to Zimbabwe. While we continue to connect the global health community in the Bay Area of San Francisco and harness its innovation ethos, rich resources, and diverse entrepreneurial ecosystem, our members also recognize that locally led solutions are inherently more sustainable than imported solutions and that innovation and talent exist around the world. Connecting those worlds can help catalyze the transformation of global health.

As 2024 came to a close, we reflected on what the Bay Area Global Health Alliance accomplished, how we shifted to meet the moments and our members’ needs, and where we need to go to advance global health impact for all and innovation. Read more about the State of the Alliance 2024.