L’Initiative selects 11 projects to strengthen the fight against pandemics
At a time when global health funding is shrinking and many programmes are coming under increasing pressure, L’Initiative remains committed to supporting national, scientific and community stakeholders. From improving access to care for vulnerable populations and advancing community-based approaches to malaria, to addressing mental health and drug-resistant tuberculosis, eleven projects have been selected for funding worth approximately €12 million.
Maintaining commitment in a challenging context
The fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria is at a critical juncture. Decades of progress are now under threat from declining international funding, multiple crises, and mounting pressure on both health systems and civil society organisations.
Against this backdrop, L’Initiative carried out its project selection process, including a Call for Expressions of Interest dedicated to community-based approaches to malaria. The objective was to fund interventions capable of either maintaining essential services or generating a catalytic effect by removing persistent barriers, testing innovative solutions, strengthening organisations over the long term, or sustaining and building on proven results.
Following the selection process, 11 projects were chosen across 11 countries in Africa and Asia, representing a total investment of about €12 million. Eight projects were selected through L’Initiative’s Calls for Proposals, while three were selected under the Call for Expressions of Interest, “Scaling up the malaria response through community-based approaches.”
Through these grants, L’Initiative supports field interventions and operational research that complement grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Targeted responses to persistent challenges
The selected projects address several complementary priorities: strengthening health systems, improving access to services for key and vulnerable populations, supporting operational research, and consolidating interventions that have already demonstrated their effectiveness.
They include initiatives to integrate mental health into HIV and tuberculosis programmes, improve access to healthcare for migrants, people in detention, displaced populations, people facing discrimination, and those living in hard-to-reach areas, while also developing more inclusive, people-centred services.
Operational research also features prominently. For example, the OSCAR-TB project, implemented in five African countries, will seek to optimise and improve the safety of fully oral short-course treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Placing communities at the heart of the malaria response
Three projects were selected under the Call for Expressions of Interest “Scaling up the malaria response through community-based approaches,” representing more than €3.4 million in funding.
Implemented in Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea, these projects aim to bring prevention, diagnosis and care closer to people living in rural and remote areas with limited access to health services.
These interventions are built on a shared conviction: communities cannot remain on the margins of the response. Their participation is essential to adapting services to local realities, reaching those furthest from healthcare, and sustainably improving the effectiveness of malaria programmes.
Investing today to protect tomorrow’s health
Together, these eleven projects reflect L’Initiative’s priorities: strengthening health systems, supporting key and vulnerable populations, generating evidence to inform decision-making, and consolidating interventions that have already proven their value.
In an increasingly uncertain international environment, this selection is a reminder that progress against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria can never be taken for granted. Maintaining essential services, supporting local organisations, preparing new responses, and ensuring equitable access to innovation are all essential if we are to prevent setbacks and continue the fight against the three pandemics.
