We promote peer-to-peer partnerships for better health care for all.
Our objective
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.
Through peer-to-peer exchange between partners, we intend to improve health care services in low and middle income countries and thereby help fulfil the global 2030 Agenda.
Major progress
Current challenges
Our approach
Partnership-based learning is the foundation for innovation and development. Strong partnerships are able to sustainably change the ways in which institutions and people work, so that the quality of health care in the country concerned is improved and health policy is influenced.
As member of the ESTHER Alliance of Global Health Partnerships we pursue their partnership approach to deliver long-term results.
Your engagement
By working together as peers across national boundaries, everyone involved gains new knowledge and experience. Experts in German health care organisations benefit by getting to know other health contexts and service delivery structures. They develop their expertise by researching challenges in partner countries, developing new strategies and adapting proven approaches to a new context. In dialogue with German partners, health organisations in partner countries can familiarise themselves with modern clinical practice, extend their own expertise and develop fresh ideas. Analysing new processes and structures boosts motivation on both sides. And it creates space for innovation, too.
Jointly drive change
By identifying medium- and long-term results, continuously monitoring activities and performing subsequent evaluations, the partnerships succeed in bringing about fundamental change which manifests on various levels. Innovative and improved health management and health care practices that are developed and piloted within the framework of a health partnership between hospitals benefit the institutions involved. But they also feed into national, technical and policy discussions and decision-making processes, thus helping address systemic challenges. Strong health systems are a pillar of universal health coverage. Our hospital partnerships will help achieve SDG 3 (Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages) and SDG 17 (Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development).
About us
Launched in September 2016, the ‘Hospital Partnerships – Partners Strengthen Health' is a joint initiative of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS).

As well as financial support, BMZ and EKFS also contribute years of experience in promoting university partnerships. The German Government works tirelessly to advance the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to strengthen health systems worldwide. The Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation has a long-standing tradition of societal engagement in the medical and humanitarian fields. Since 1983, it has also been using its expertise to support and promote projects for medical research and development. The foundation’s humanitarian purpose in the medical sector is to sustainably improve health care in developing countries. In addition to direct medical assistance for patients and improvements to medical infrastructure on the ground, the foundation supports training projects in developing countries. Medical capacity building is promoted on all levels of the health system – from the health worker in remote regions to the university professor. In this way, the foundation provides help for self-help, which ideally translates into a sustainable contribution to better medical care in partner countries.
Within this framework, the foundation and BMZ are currently promoting 113 hospital partnerships in 37 countries.
Institutions providing sectoral support. The initiative receives support from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)and from the World Health Organization (WHO). The initiative is a member of the international ESTHER Alliance, which promotes institutional health partnerships worldwide. As a member of the alliance, we are committed to strengthening and scaling up hospital partnerships. Other experienced partners, such as the KfW Development Bank (KfW), support the selection process, and thus boost quality assurance.
The initiative’s secretariat is located at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. GIZ is responsible for publishing calls for project proposals, for managing financial support and for delivering expert advice. And it assists partners with medical and administrative issues during project implementation. It is also responsible for the initiative's PR and networking.
Our funding programmes
Through our funding, we support new and existing partnerships in the health sector.
Hospital Partnerships
DAAD Pagel Programme
Partnerships for the health sector in developing countries
Engagement Global
service for development initiatives
bengo
consultancy service on international projects