UNHCR–Gates Foundation partnership reaches nearly $20 million across ten grants spanning emergency relief, maternal health, and sanitation innovation

By 2025, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNHCR had completed approximately ten grants totalling nearly $20 million — making the Foundation one of the most consistent private philanthropic partners in refugee relief globally. Spanning nearly two decades and covering emergency health relief in South Sudan, maternal and newborn care programs in six countries, sanitation innovation in East Africa and Bangladesh, digital financial inclusion for Syrian refugees, and the Ukrainian emergency response, the partnership represented a sustained commitment to applying development science and private capital to the world's most acute displacement crises. The Foundation's most recent $10 million emergency grant, awarded in 2025, covered health, education, water, and sanitation for refugees across the UNHCR programme.