Supported by an endowment of $4.4 billion, CIFF is the world’s largest philanthropy that focuses specifically on improving children’s lives. Bringing business principles to development, we work with partners to achieve urgent and lasting change for children at scale.

In the financial year to 31 August 2015, there was a rapid growth of the grant portfolio and significant progress to seemingly intractable challenges for children and their families. The value of grants disbursed rose by 80% to $220 million, compared to the previous financial year. New grants were approved across our main priority areas of children’s nutrition, health, early learning, deworming and climate change.

For more on CIFF’s funding go to the grant portfolio tool which shows all current and contracted grants, along with descriptions on their intended impact, and the latest data and results where available.

DOWNLOAD CIFF’S 2015 ANNUAL REPORT (PDF)

HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2015

The right nutrition at the right time

Over the past year, thousands of children’s lives are being saved in Nigeria by a transformative approach to treating severe acute malnutrition at local health facilities and at home. Since 2015, a CIFF-funded programme in northern Nigeria has cured over 830,000 children and the annual cure rate was 85%. This is far higher than international standards and at $160 per child treated it is cost effective.

We are also seeing exciting results from our investments to bring down the costs of ready to use therapeutic foods, used to treat wasting. Four new recipes of this life-saving food were developed, each one designed to suit local tastes and use local ingredients of four countries: Ghana, Ethiopia, Pakistan and India.

More children dewormed in 2015 than any other year

Other big wins for 2015 included India’s significant commitment to expel parasitic worms from children’s bodies. An estimated 89 million children were treated on India’s National Deworming Day. CIFF is funding technical support at national and state levels.

In Kenya, there was national coverage of school-based deworming with over six million children dewormed. As a result, millions of children have been cured of worms and avoided re-infection.

Saving babies’ lives

Also in India, we have been working with partners in Rajasthan to reduce the high rates of deaths and injuries in maternity wards. A safe childbirth checklist has been introduced in 101 clinics in the state. This simple innovation has helped transform the performance of health workers by improving their skills and confidence to care for both mother and child. The checklist has contributed to a significant fall in newborn mortality at the health facilities where it has been introduced.

Nurturing the brain

Early experiences determine the development of a child’s brain. Providing quality early education before primary school will transform a child’s abilities and opportunities throughout their lives.

Our investment with Galli Galli Sim Sim, the locally-produced version of Sesame Street in India, is designed to develop content that is scientifically formulated to increase cognitive, social, health and hygiene skills. Children across India regularly watch and learn from this series with a parent or care-provider. Between February and September, audience figures showed that seven million children watched Galli Galli Sim Sim, mostly from poor households.

Keep global temperature rise well below 2C

On climate change, it was an important year for the planet when governments, cities and businesses pledged to lower carbon emissions and phase out greenhouse gases to help secure a healthy future for children.

Working with partners around the world, we have funded expert advice to policy makers, mayors and the private sector in Europe, China and Latin America. We use a sound evidence base to show that ambitious climate action is politically feasible and affordable.

Data is core for all our programmes

We believe that without quality evidence, we will not understand what does and does not work to maximise the potential impact for children. We have strengthened our commitment to transparency with a new policy to share data and evidence on what we and our partners are learning. From 2016, all CIFF-funded evaluations will be publicly available so that we are contributing to the global knowledge bank.