Global Development and Population Program

The Global Development and Population Program’s grantmaking helps improve learning in schools in the developing world. This is one way to promote development that empowers and helps to realize the potential of vulnerable people, particularly young women and girls. Photo by Dana Schmidt/Hewlett Foundation.

The Global Development and Population Program makes grants to improve the well-being of vulnerable people. In developing countries, our grantmaking focuses on promoting transparent, accountable governance to deliver social services. We also make grants in developing countries to provide high quality basic education, family planning, and reproductive health, and to ensure that policymaking is based on sound evidence. In the United States, the Program supports access to quality family planning and reproductive health services.

With relatively modest resources to apply to immense needs, the Global Development and Population Program seeks to maximize its investments by supporting sound policymaking through research, analysis, and advocacy. Our goal is to strengthen the ability of people in developing countries to hold their governments as well as international donors accountable for adopting and implementing equitable and efficient policies, particularly in the delivery of quality services. Whenever possible, support is provided directly to local institutions located in the countries we wish to help.

The Program supports civil society organizations around the world that track public spending and advocate for greater transparency in how government revenues are managed and used for social programs. The Foundation’s country office in Mexico has a special focus on these issues. Part of this agenda supports the work of organizations seeking greater transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of aid donors, whose policies and practices can have an important impact on people in countries that are dependent on foreign aid. To support better public policy, the Foundation also invests in analysis, training, and institutional capacity strengthening in developing countries, and supports program evaluation and demographic analysis.

The Global Development and Population Program focuses on two sectors that shape the lives of low-income and marginalized people, particularly women—education and quality family planning and reproductive health services. Our work in education is dedicated to ensuring that young children gain mastery of reading and other fundamental skills to enable them to move out of poverty. The Program supports innovative approaches, including community-level learning assessments, rigorous testing of instructional models, and advocacy to ensure that children are learning.

The Program funds quality family planning and reproductive health services as well as government and donor policies and practices that support expanded access to these services. Along with supporting the intrinsic value of women’s control of their own childbearing, good family planning and reproductive health services play an essential role in improving women’s lives, reducing poverty and rapid population growth, and enabling sustainable and equitable economic growth.

The Program’s investments in family planning and reproductive health include grantmaking in the United States and more specifically in the Bay Area. This work is aimed at supporting high-quality sex education and family planning services for underserved populations; reducing unintended pregnancy; and protecting and expanding women’s access to core reproductive health services.