Asia Pacific has seen some of the fastest gains in health and human development in the past decades. Yet as traditional paths to development face global pressures, experts are increasingly emphasising the need for swift, coordinated efforts to safeguard long-term progress and mitigate setbacks.
New forms of partnerships – with deeper collaboration across governments, the private sector and philanthropy – are becoming more vital as resource constraints and systemic stresses emerge, said health and government leaders at this year’s Philanthropy Asia Summit.
Global health stewardship is now at a crossroads, with reductions on national development spending impacting health services and efforts to improve nutrition outcomes, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the annual summit convened by the Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) to spotlight solutions and innovations across climate, education and health in the region. Recent developments – such as the United States’ withdrawal from the WHO in January – have presented challenges to global health diplomacy.
WHO is supporting developing countries in sustaining these services, but speaking to a room full of philanthropists and key decision-makers across various sectors, Ghebreyesus called for a rethink of the type of support that could help governments navigate challenges in the long term.
He said: “Many countries now recognise the need to transition away from dependency (on aid) to better self-reliance…I do agree the mindset of dependency needs to go away.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), urged governments to move away from dependency on aid to self-reliance, in his address at the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2025 in Singapore. Image: Philanthropy Asia Alliance
Ghebreyesus sees philanthropists bridging the gaps that remain and supporting countries on the journey towards sustainable self-reliance. He noted that in Asia, philanthropic capital has contributed to expanded access to health care, as well as efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance and diseases like dengue.
“At this most difficult time, I ask you to work with countries, not only to address their health issues, but to help build their capacities,” he said.
Slow-burning crises
At the fifth and largest edition of its flagship summit this year, PAA, with the support of Temasek Trust and global members such as the Gates Foundation and Dalio Philanthropies, shone a strong spotlight on the need to tackle health and nutrition challenges.
Alongside Gates Foundation, as well as other private foundations and non-profits such as the Hong Kong-based Institute of Philanthropy and Indonesian family-owned Tanoto Foundation, PAA launched an initiative to mobilise over US$100 million in catalytic funding for projects that will improve health outcomes for people in the region by 2030.
Known as the Health for Human Potential (HHP) Community, the initiative is one of two new PAA Communities unveiled this year that will bring together partners to fund high-impact projects. It will first focus on Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam – Southeast Asia’s most populous countries – where important gains in healthcare have been made but further collaboration and investment are needed, said PAA.
The other new initiative is the Just Energy Transition Community, which will focus on closing energy transition gaps in the region, co-led with PAA members including Tara Climate Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The two new Communities add to the first three Communities introduced in 2024 – covering blue oceans, sustainable land use as well as holistic and inclusive education.
Speaking at the summit, Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is a distinguished patron of the alliance, said that philanthropy’s approach in Asia should be focused on piloting and scaling proven interventions.
Citing data from Gavi, the global vaccine alliance which has pioneered a public-private co-financing model, he noted how every US$1 invested in vaccines is estimated to return US$54 in benefits, and that the same could be replicated for improving health systems across Asia. “These refer to not just financial returns, but broader economic and social returns, which means healthier and more productive lives for everyone,” he said.
President Tharman also shared his experience visiting “aspirational districts” in India – an initiative by the Narendra Modi government to quickly and effectively transform more than 100 of the most under-developed districts across the vast country using data provided by the grassroot communities, with a focus on improving maternal and child health. He shared how the initiative has given ownership and agency on the ground to the people in the village.
President Tharman Shanmugaratnam (centre) highlighted food and nutrition challenges as something that Asia-led philanthropy can tackle, during a fireside chat with American billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates (left). The discussion was moderated by Jennifer Lewis, head, Collaboration & Partnership at Temasek Trust (right). Image: Philanthropy Asia Alliance
The need to revolutionise food and nutrition systems was identified by President Tharman as an opportunity for Asia-led philanthropy to work on. He said it is an issue that has been least noticed because it is a “slow-burning crisis”.
“We have reached the limits of traditional ways of producing food, both by ordinary smallholder farmers as well as in industrial agriculture – because it is too large a source of greenhouse gas emissions…We need a new green revolution.”
Many food-producing countries have been plagued by consistently declining and stagnating crop productivity due to problems like land degradation and water scarcity. President Tharman said: “Soil health has deteriorated significantly. There’s been a step reduction in soil moisture over the last 20 years that now makes the land much more susceptible to droughts, much less able to be a sink for carbon, and much less able to grow plants with a reasonable yield. We have a real challenge in how we grow food in the future.”
As the staple crop of Asia, rice is indispensable. President Tharman spotlighted how organisations like the Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory are working on decarbonising rice farming and improving rice yields, supported by philanthropic organisations such as the Gates Foundation and the Philanthropy Asia Alliance. Image: Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory
The nutrition challenge
In the past few years, scientists have cautioned that the current development model adopted by many countries is not sustainable, and the progress made in the last two decades is at risk of being reversed. The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a further backsliding, and advances in areas such as improvement in maternal and child health have been offset by growing food insecurity and climate-related challenges.
Susan Brown, assistant secretary general at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also noted how progress in some areas has slowed, and in some instances, seen a reverse. She also observed that global cooperation frameworks are under increasing strain, with traditional channels of aid and solidarity under pressure.
“A young girl born in a poor urban community in South Asia is still likely to be highly exposed to air pollution…She is likely to be malnourished. She is likely to face poverty and debt. She might experience unprecedented crises in her lifetime – hurricanes, floods, droughts. These might displace her and her family, not once but multiple times,” she said, adding that UNDP is trying to help countries solve complex development puzzles and exploring ways to enhance impact through strategic partnerships.
“The challenges cannot be solved in isolation. We have to take the opportunity to build new forms of partnerships, and collaborate across government, the private sector and philanthropy.”
Health and development experts discussed the nutrition challenge at the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2025. From left: Dr Chua Mei Chien, senior consultant and head, department of neonatology, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital; June Kunugi, regional director for East Asia and the Pacific, UNICEF; Wisuwat Songnuan, assistant professor, faculty of science, Mahidol University, Zhang Cuilin, director, Global Centre for Asian Women’s Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, with moderator Benedict Cheong, chief systems integration officer, Temasek Trust. Image: Philanthropy Asia Alliance
At the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2025, health and development experts discussed the persistent challenge of malnutrition across Asia, an issue further intensified by the impacts of climate change on crop quality and supply.
June Kunugi, regional director for East Asia and the Pacific at UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian and development aid to children worldwide, said the first 1,000 days of a child’s life should be seen as a “window of opportunity” to ensure that they receive the nutrition they need.
However, she noted that the increasing frequency of climate shocks and disasters adds another layer of vulnerability that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable children.
“This could profoundly shape their ability to grow, learn and thrive, with lifelong consequences for themselves, their families and communities, and also for entire economies.
There has been progress. According to UN figures, at the turn of the century, one quarter of children in East Asia and the Pacific was chronically undernourished; today, the number is at one in seven – which means 20 million children are on a healthier and more productive path today.
In Indonesia, for example, child stunting has decreased by more than 15 per cent in just a decade. At the summit, the Indonesian leadership showcased its plans to continue to combat the form of malnutrition that hinders child growth.
The country’s coordinating minister for human development and cultural affairs Pratikno said the government regards stunting as a structural issue and is piloting a system of cooperation and food production to support more local community efforts.
Under President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership, Indonesia has also launched a free nationwide school meal programme.
Spotlight on heat-health impacts
At the summit, the Climate & Health Funders’ Coalition, an alliance working closely with PAA to scale evidence-based investment and action on climate as a catalyst for better health outcomes, shared its insights on the impact of heat risks on health systems. The new coalition is fronted by philanthropic organisations and PAA members Wellcome Trust and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Dr Alan Dangour, director, climate and health at Wellcome Trust, explained how evidence-based research is often not available when questions are not asked. For example, not much is known about what happens to a pregnant woman or a young infant at high temperatures; little is shared about extreme heat’s impact on mental health.
He said the coalition aims to “fill the evidence” and support governments in driving action at the national level.
Outdoor workers are also particularly vulnerable during heat waves. In India, for example, salt farmers toil in scorching heat for as long as eight months every year. Some describe conditions where temperatures rise to at least 48 degrees Celsius, said Deepali Khanna, head of Asia at The Rockefeller Foundation. “They work so hard for a paycheck and they cannot afford to wait for the weather to cool. Despite the well-known risk of falling ill with a heatstroke, they find that they have no choice,” she said.
The Rockefeller Foundation has been working with India’s largest union of informal workers to tackle challenges such as the country’s housing crisis and to improve agricultural yields, and will now also look into helping workers protect their livelihoods under extreme heat. The union has installed solar-powered airconditioned water coolers to help workers stay hydrated; it has also explored parametric insurance products that can provide women with payouts that would help them stay at home when the temperatures rise above a particular limit.
The foundation is also supporting and providing feedback to local governments to come up with heat action plans, in a bid to reduce heat-related deaths.
According to the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, the global potential loss of income due to extreme heat reached a record-high of US$835 billion in 2023.
Khanna said: “We need to recognise that this is not just a health crisis, but an economic and political one.”
“In a fractured, resource-constrained world, philanthropies must come together to back bold solutions and take big bets to help get the solutions in the hands of people who need them,” she said.
Read the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2025 Insights report for more highlights from the conference discussions.
