Monday, 2nd June 2025 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM WAT
United Nations House, Diplomatic Drive, Abuja

Goodwill Message by Her Excellency, Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki
Founder and President, The Wellbeing Foundation Africa

Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues in health and stakeholders in development, 

I am pleased to convey my goodwill and full support on the occasion of the formalisation of a transformative partnership agreement between the World Health Organization Nigeria Country Office and the TY Danjuma Foundation. This partnership reflects an important evolution in Nigeria’s approach to sustainable health financing and primary health care service delivery, and demonstrates the growing role of national philanthropy in advancing our collective health objectives.

As Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and as the Inaugural Global Health Ambassador for the WHO Foundation, I welcome this agreement as a constructive outcome of our shared ambition to strengthen health systems by reinforcing domestic leadership and investment. Since assuming my role with the WHO Foundation in 2021, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa has worked to widen the engagement between the WHO Country Office and Nigeria’s philanthropic community, advocating for greater domestic resource mobilisation and providing a bridge between technical frameworks and local implementation capacity. 

The Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s frontline programming, policy engagement, and glocal advocacy are directly aligned with the goals this partnership seeks to advance and with the TY Danjuma Foundation mission of enhancing the quality of life of Nigerians by supporting initiatives that improve access to health and educational opportunities. With a longstanding focus on maternal, newborn, and child health, our interventions are rooted in community-level delivery, responsive to national systems, and guided by global standards. Across our work, we prioritise evidence-based approaches that strengthen primary health care, promote respectful maternity care, and improve health outcomes for women, infants, and families. These efforts are anchored in equity, informed by robust data, and executed in alignment with national strategies and WHO technical guidance, with the World Health Organization serving as the central normative authority and standard.

This new partnership between WHO Nigeria and the TY Danjuma Foundation is, therefore, timely and well-positioned. It offers a complementary approach to filling persistent financing gaps, particularly in PHC systems where underinvestment continues to limit impact. According to WHO’s Investment Round estimates, sub-Saharan Africa requires an additional US$20 billion annually to close the UHC financing gap. In Nigeria, where total government expenditure on health remains below 5 per cent, there is a growing consensus on the need for innovative domestic financing mechanisms. Increasing national health spending by just 1 per cent of GDP could prevent over 3 million deaths each year by 2030, and generate up to a 4 per cent gain in economic productivity.

By aligning philanthropic capital with public sector goals, this partnership strengthens national ownership of health outcomes and builds accountability for sustainable delivery. It also reinforces the WHO’s model of leveraging non-state actors to support health priorities, while maintaining coherence with the WHO’s normative and strategic leadership. Importantly, it demonstrates that health progress can be driven through deliberate cooperation among trusted actors with shared values and mutual commitments.

On behalf of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, I reaffirm our commitment to continuing to support the implementation of this partnership and other aligned initiatives. As Nigeria navigates complex health challenges, from maternal and child mortality to pandemic preparedness and health worker capacity, coordinated action remains essential. We look forward to working alongside both WHO and the TY Danjuma Foundation to ensure that the benefits of this collaboration are realised at scale, in service of equitable, quality health for all. 

I thank all those who have contributed to making this agreement possible, and wish the implementing teams every success in the period ahead.

Thank you.