CEO’s Message
At CIFF, we strive to ensure that all children, especially the most marginalised, have the opportunity to lead healthy, happy lives. To make this a reality on a global scale, we focus on some of the world’s most pressing challenges – climate change, girls’ education and choice, and strengthening nutrition and healthcare systems. In practice, this means working closely with governments, implementing partners and other philanthropies, to take proven solutions and bring them to scale across countries, regions and globally.
Our work exists within a profoundly complicated, and worsening, global context. But that is not reason to despair, and saying something is difficult has never been a strategy. Instead we must look for and capitalise on areas of opportunity. Where we see climate change denialism, we must continue to demonstrate that the green transition is not only compatible with economic growth, but can accelerate it. Where women and girls face greater restrictions on their life opportunities and ability to choose, we must expand access to core lifelines like education, skilling and reproductive health. Where nutrition and basic healthcare is still inequitably distributed around the world, we must scale cost-effective innovations whilst championing government ownership. Across these opportunities, there is a need for us to be entirely clear on our role as a philanthropic foundation; to help build bridges so that we can work faster, smarter, and collectively to advance global climate and development goals.
In recognition of the external context, we have worked to adapt our approach, maintaining a laser focus on our charitable objectives and prioritising long-term grants which have a clear path to sustainability. All our work is structured around specific missions, which are outcomes we are working towards in the real world – whether that's ending seven specific Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa, or ensuring that children are born healthy in India.
In this context, I am proud that we have continued to show the power of collaboration at global and local levels. Here are just a few examples:
yet 99% of the world’s population breathe harmful air. Burning fossil fuels has a disastrous effect on child health, whilst also driving the climate crisis. In 2024, we saw strong European leadership on clean air with the EU’s adoption of one of the world’s most progressive air quality frameworks. CIFF’s partner, the Clean Air Fund, has been working collaboratively in Europe for many years to help support evidence based policy on clean air – and this policy uptake is testament of their impact. The new Ambient Air Quality Directive could prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and set a precedent for action globally.
which are shaping the way in which HIV self-testing and prevention can be offered to users around the world, offering options which will protect millions – particularly in middle and lower-income countries.
gained momentum as more countries formally announced eliminations of diseases – 54 countries had eliminated at least one NTD by the end of 2024. Furthermore, funding mechanisms such as the Child Nutrition Fund were strengthened to tackle malnutrition at a global scale.
where CIFF supported an array of partners, from survivors, to NGOs, and government ministers. At the Ministerial over 100 governments pledged commitments, and CIFF committed $125 million to advance evidence-based, scalable, and locally-led solutions to address violence against children – particularly in support of government efforts to end child marriage in India and across Africa.
To complement our scaled ambition, we are scaling up our funding. As recognition of the urgency of the challenges we face, and the opportunity CIFF has to accelerate global progress, in 2024, we received a generous donation from Sir Chris Hohn to scale our philanthropic giving. Sir Chris is contributing an additional $328 million, outside of CIFF’s endowment, for specific programmes. Combined with CIFF’s planned charitable commitments, this brings our total commitments in 2024 to $923 million. This significant increase brings our total active commitments plus multi-year grant portfolio to $3.1 billion.
In the context of rollbacks on government development budgets and a broader retreat from global solidarity, we are proud of the bold commitment from Sir Chris and his continued care and dedication in this work.This scaling up of CIFF’s work is testament to Sir Chris’s belief, and that of the entire foundation, that progress is possible.
Although this is a considerable increase in our charitable spend, we should be under no illusions that philanthropy can solve the financing crisis on its own. As many nations grapple with limited fiscal space – the product of punitive cost of capital and a persistent debt crisis – collectively we are falling far short in ensuring adequate financing for countries’ climate and development priorities. Supporting domestic resource mobilisation and systems strengthening, unlocking private capital mobilisation, and reforming multilateral financial systems are crucial steps to addressing this problem. I am pleased that CIFF continues to build its own climate and development finance capabilities and grantmaking, and moving forward we will be doing more to ensure that the global finance system is fit for purpose.
2024 was a transformative year for CIFF as an organisation and I was consistently reminded that the strength of our work comes not just from our resources, but also from our people. I am incredibly proud of all the hard work CIFF colleagues and partners put in to make 2024 a year of progress amidst uncertainty and change. It has been their unwavering commitment and entrepreneurial spirit that has driven our success.
So, I hope you find in this report that there is progress to celebrate, and abundant evidence that the challenges we face can be overcome. And as we look ahead to 2025, I think there is reason to be excited for the work ahead. Now more than ever philanthropy has a duty to pool resources, convene partners and accelerate system change for a better future for all. CIFF is ready to play its part.
