The Rockefeller Foundation has released its 2025 impact report titled “Big Bets, Real Results,” outlining a year of major investments in global development initiatives focused on energy access, food systems, health security, and data-driven innovation.
The report shows that amid a challenging global aid environment and declining traditional development funding, the 113-year-old philanthropic organisation awarded more than US$350 million in grants, mobilised about US$3 billion in additional funding, and allocated US$133,166,945 across 66 initiatives in Africa alone. Collectively, the programmes reached an estimated 731 million people worldwide.
According to the Foundation, its work in 2025 was driven by major strategic priorities including Universal Energy Abundance and Regenerative School Meals, aimed at scaling frontier technologies, strengthening community-driven systems, and improving access to reliable data across key sectors.
The report highlights the growing role of African-led partnerships in advancing development outcomes, particularly in disease surveillance, food security, and energy access.
In West Africa, a funding model supported by the Global Fund, the Abbott Foundation, IQVIA, and the Rockefeller Foundation is helping countries strengthen laboratory infrastructure and disease surveillance systems. The initiative has enabled faster detection and response to outbreaks, with results including more than 100 outbreaks detected across the subregion, training of over 1,000 laboratory technicians, and the establishment of sentinel surveillance systems in 11 countries.
In Ghana, the Foundation’s partnership with the World Food Programme is focused on improving school feeding systems by promoting nutritious, locally sourced food and strengthening smallholder farmer participation. The programme supports the integration of fortified grains and diverse protein sources into school meals, identifies gaps in supply chains and delivery systems, and provides policymakers with evidence based tools to improve national nutrition programmes. It also aims to strengthen links between schools and local agricultural producers.
In Nigeria, the Alliance for Clean Energy has supported the development of the country’s first interconnected mini grid system combining solar panels, batteries, and grid power. The project has connected about 30,000 people to electricity, created or improved nearly 14,000 jobs, and unlocked more than US$287 million in funding to scale the model. In addition, Digital Green’s FarmerChat application is providing AI powered agricultural guidance to farmers across several countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, India, and Brazil, and has recorded more than 1,600,000 downloads and over 10 million user queries.
In Zambia and other African countries, Mission 300 is expanding access to electricity, with the broader goal of reaching 300 million people across Africa by 2030. So far, more than 44 million people have gained electricity access through World Bank and African Development Bank supported projects, while 30 countries have developed National Energy Compacts to support the initiative.
Marking 60 years of its Africa Regional Office, the Foundation says its work reflects a shift toward strengthening African led solutions in health, education, and energy amid rising global challenges such as climate change, conflict, and reductions in aid flows.
“As The Rockefeller Foundation marks 60 years of its Africa Regional Office, it reflects a broader shift in the future of development. Amid aid cuts, geopolitical tensions and conflict, climate impacts, and political change, progress is becoming harder to sustain. Against this backdrop, the focus is increasingly on strengthening African capacity across health, education, and energy, and on African-led solutions and leadership, alongside the role of philanthropic capital. The Foundation’s latest Impact Report highlights how we are reimagining progress through mission-driven action and partnerships,” William Asiko, Senior Vice President and head of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office.
Source: Rockefeller Foundation
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