Melinda French Gates commits $250 million to women’s health programmes

American billionaire and philanthropic giant Melinda French Gates is launching a $250 million (€228 million) fund to improve women’s health globally.

French Gates, who has committed to giving away most of her fortune during her lifetime, cited issues like lack of access to care, pregnancy-related complications, malnutrition, and depression and anxiety as critical health issues facing women today – and as key motivations for the new programme.

“Women’s health continues to be an afterthought,” French Gates said in a statement, “and it’s impacting the health of our families, our communities, our economies”.

Through the new initiative, called Action for Women’s Health, French Gates plans to invest in groups that focus on women’s mental or physical health anywhere in the world, notably those that address daily health needs and disabilities, longevity, access to care, and family-centric issues like reproductive health and wellbeing.

Selected organisations will be granted between $1 million and $5 million (€912,000 and €4.6 million) from the philanthropic arm of Pivotal Ventures, which French Gates founded in 2015 to support social causes.

In May, French Gates said Pivotal would allocate $1 billion (€912 million) over the next two years to advance women’s rights around the world.

With the new fund, French Gates said she aims to “build a world where women have their health, so they can exercise their full power”.

The money will be awarded by the end of 2025, her organisation said.

French Gates has previously announced support for youth mental health initiatives in the United States, including strategies to improve access to mental health resources for people of colour and LGBTQ children, supporting schools and caregivers, promoting healthier experiences online, and investing in early start-ups tackling youth mental health.

These programmes are far from French Gates’ first foray into health. She helmed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – which she founded with her former husband Bill Gates in 2000 – for more than two decades, turning it into a philanthropic powerhouse for global health and development.

French Gates stepped down from the foundation earlier this year to fully focus on gender equality issues.