Humanitarian Health & Human Rights
Program Overview
The Humanitarian Health and Human Rights program aims to improve health outcomes for populations affected by conflict and displacement by supporting equitable health service delivery, protecting humanitarian health workers, and promoting accountability for human rights violations that impact health. While historically focused on Myanmar, the portfolio has expanded to other contexts and prioritizes settings with strong local responders, chronic underfunding, significant displacement, and limited access for traditional international actors.
A central priority is shifting power and resources toward local organizations. Our strategy emphasizes funding initiatives led by or closely connected to affected communities, aligning with broader efforts to localize humanitarian response and strengthen community resilience. We also prioritize contexts where funding gaps are most acute and where local actors are often best positioned to operate.
Strategies
Improve access to quality health services in humanitarian settings through service delivery and research.
Promote health equity in humanitarian settings by developing tools to identify and measure drivers of inequity and supporting models to address inequities.
Document and pursue accountability for human rights violations that impact health outcomes and violations of international humanitarian law
Recent Grantees
Community Partners International (CPI)
Core support for CPI’s work empowering vulnerable communities in Asia to meet their essential health, humanitarian, and sustainable development needs, with particular emphasis on community-based health programs for Rohingya refugees, and humanitarian health research.
Insecurity Insight
Core support for Insecurity Insight’s work collecting and analyzing data about violence against health facilities and health workers in order to strengthen civilian protection and the delivery of aid in armed conflict..
Physicians for Human Rights
Project support to document and disseminate the public health and human rights impacts of U.S. global health funding cuts to inform policy change and advocacy.
Metrics for Management
Project support for the development of a new measurement tool to assess health equity in humanitarian settings, providing critical insight to humanitarian organizations seeking to make the greatest impact with limited resources.
Humanitarian Advisory Group
Project support for locally-led research generation that identifies context-specific solutions to humanitarian crises, to help ensure this work is adequately funded, recognized, and integrated into wider policy and advocacy discussions.
Start Network
Project support for an organizational strengthening program targeted to local humanitarian organizations, to increase their access to funding and shape more robust and resilient organizations for disaster response
Connect With Us
The Humanitarian Health and Human Rights program has two grant cycles annually. Proposals are by invitation only.
