Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security receives a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation to deliver COVID-19 Response Research as part of the Exemplars in Global Health program

May 25, 2021 – The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health has been awarded a $400,000 USD grant from The Rockefeller Foundation to identify and showcase successful country responses to COVID-19, in partnership with Exemplars in Global Health. The grant will enable the Center to document, evaluate and disseminate large-scale health successes that can be replicated to improve global outbreak response capabilities.

“The provision of essential health services is critical to reducing disease transmission, supporting population health, and enabling safe and healthy communities,” said Dr. Naveen Rao, Senior Vice President, Health, at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Uncovering successful approaches for maintaining essential health services will be a critical tool for public health stakeholders the world over.”

With a focus on what policy actions enabled countries to control the spread of COVID-19 while maintaining their essential health services, and how these policies adjusted over time, the Center’s research will fill a void in the body of evidence that has been generated over the last year. “Though the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has lasted more than a year, there is still a great need to better understand why and how certain countries, especially those with limited resources, have been able to contain the spread of the virus, while maintaining access to essential health services,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Senior Scholar and the lead researcher for this work.

“The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security will spend the next year and a half conducting research on strategies used to respond to COVID-19 and maintain essential health services in four exemplar countries it will identify in Asia and Latin America,” said Niranjan Bose, Managing Director of Exemplars in Global Health, a partnership incubated in Gates Ventures, the private office of Bill Gates, in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This will be a global effort, with Makerere University School of Public Health leading research efforts in Africa, and Johns Hopkins closely collaborating with local research institutions in Latin America and Asia.

“We are looking forward to being able to conduct, synthesize and – most importantly – disseminate this important research, not only to inform decisions for the current public health crisis, but also to help other countries prepare for and manage future crises with resilience,” said Lucia Mullen, Senior Analyst at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Throughout the lifecycle of this research, findings from in-country research partners will be shared with government officials and norm-setting bodies to shape national policies, implementation plans, and technical guidance.

The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation to enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We work to promote the well-being of humanity and make opportunity universal. Our focus is on scaling renewable energy for all, stimulating economic mobility, and ensuring equitable access to health and nutritious food. For more information, sign up for our newsletter at rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter @RockefellerFdn.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security works to protect people’s health from epidemics and disasters and ensure that communities are resilient to major challenges. Established in 2017 as part of the Center for Health Security, the Outbreak Observatory collects information on challenges and solutions associated with outbreak response and share it broadly with the public health preparedness and response communities to allow others to learn from these experiences in order to improve global outbreak response capabilities.

Exemplars in Global Health is a partnership of independent researchers, academics, funders, and in-country experts committed to harnessing rigorous data and evidence to better understand and replicate large-scale health successes around the world. Exemplars in Global Health distills stories of positive outlier countries that have made extraordinary progress in important health areas to help public health decision-makers adapt strategies to their contexts.

Media Contacts:

The Rockefeller Foundation
Ashley Chang
achang@rockfound.org

Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Margaret Miller
Margaret.miller@jhu.edu

Exemplars in Global Health
Media Inquiries
exemplars@gatesventures.com