The Gates Foundation’s network diplomacy in European donor countries

The Gates Foundation is the most influential private philanthropic foundation in global health and development. This article examines how the Foundation has developed an unparalleled capacity to rally other donors to its priorities, which include the development and distribution of technological tools to reduce the burden of infectious disease and child mortality in the world’s most impoverished regions. Using publicly available data, the article analyses the Gates Foundation’s strategic engagement in Europe, focusing on its bureaucratic presence, government relations, and grant-making in its three European focus countries: the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and France. It highlights that, since 2010, the Gates Foundation has built a bureaucratic infrastructure akin to a diplomatic service, establishing country offices in London and Berlin alongside representation in Paris, Brussels and Stockholm. Through regular engagement with elected officials and bureaucrats in these nations, the Foundation has forged many strategic partnerships, effectively leveraging European states’ diplomatic power in wider political forums and alliances. Moreover, the Foundation has disbursed billions in grants to recipients in the UK, Germany, and France to advance research and innovation on its priority health issues, implement programs in poor countries, and develop policy and advocacy related to global health and development. Combined, these efforts have contributed to securing substantial and recurrent government co-investment in Gates-supported initiatives. The article proposes that the Foundation exercises a form of ‘network diplomacy’ that entails building and maintaining wide networks across European societies with the aim of aligning donor governments’ overseas development assistance and policies with the Foundation’s strategic objectives in global health and development. The concept of network diplomacy offers a new perspective on how the Gates Foundation has consolidated and expanded its transnational political presence through an approach that is strategic, bureaucratised and institutionalised, rather than simply a product of its financial might. The findings amplify existing concerns regarding the sway of private foundations over public policy, their impact on democratic accountability and governance in donor states, and the resultant implications for the Foundation’s intended beneficiaries in low- and middle-income countries.