Hewlett Foundation Announces New Integrated Global Development and Population Program

In the coming year, the Hewlett Foundation will integrate its two programs working in the developing world, Global Development and Population. Both are dedicated to improving the lives of the world's most vulnerable people, especially women and girls, through better economic opportunities, more accountable governance, access to quality education, and improved reproductive health and rights. The Foundation is extremely proud of the great work of these programs and believes that an integrated Global Development and Population Program will be well positioned to achieve these shared goals.

 

The Global Development and Population Program

The Hewlett Foundation has a deep commitment to building fields and strengthening institutions in developing countries, with the long time horizons and long-term support this requires. Since its inception, the Foundation has promoted family planning and reproductive health and rights through its Population Program. More recently, through its Global Development Program, the Foundation has undertaken significant commitments to promoting equitable and sustainable economic growth and improving the well-being and life opportunities for the world's poorest people.

The Global Development and Population Program will build on the core goals and strategies of these existing programs. Thus, the Foundation will continue to work to ensure the conditions for equitable and sustainable economic growth in the developing world, including securing sustainable economic livelihoods for the world's poorest people, especially women; establishing the conditions for transparent and accountable governance, particularly in the financing and delivery of public services; and investing in human capital by ensuring that all children have the opportunity to learn in school.

The Foundation will maintain its long-standing commitment to enabling women to control the number and timing of their pregnancies and protecting women and girls against gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections, and unsafe abortions. During women's peak years of economic productivity, their most significant health problems concern reproductive health. Thus, the Foundation recognizes that good family planning and reproductive health play an essential role in reducing poverty and enabling sustainable and equitable economic growth. Improving access to voluntary, high-quality family planning and reproductive health services not only will help improve the lives of individual women and their families but also will help developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, reap the benefits of slower rates of population growth. This, in turn, will make it easier for the poorest countries to make the investments needed to improve their citizens' welfare and sustain the environment in which they live.

The mission of the Global Development and Population Program is to promote the well-being of the world's poorest people and ensure that the voices and interests of women, including their reproductive health and rights, are represented in the development process. The Program will uphold the core operating principles of the Foundation's international grantmaking:

•    Building capacity within developing countries and providing the long-term institutional support to make this possible
•    Focusing on lasting system change and facilitating policy reforms to make this possible
•    Building the evidence base for sound programming and policymaking
•    Thinking rigorously about goals and strategies and holding itself accountable through appropriate evaluations
•    Taking risks for long-term gains and learning from failures
•    Increasing the value of the Foundation's investments through collaborations with governments, multi- and bilateral donors, sister philanthropies, the private sector, and civil society in the South and the North
•    Seeking long-lasting impact for the greatest number of people

The geographic scope of the Program will still reflect an interest in global reach balanced with the recognition that many processes of change operate on a national or regional level. As a result, the Foundation's grantmaking will continue to support work at the global, regional, national, and, where appropriate, subnational levels. The Program will remain focused on sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Mexico.

In addition, the Foundation stands by its lasting commitment to protect and enhance reproductive health and rights in the United States. Grantmaking in this area will continue and enjoy the same high priority.