LGT Venture Philanthropy renews partnership with Living Goods to strengthen community health systems and scale government-led, digitally enabled care across Africa. The collaboration will support an optimised model and replicable blueprint to expand access to affordable primary healthcare.
LGT Venture Philanthropy (LGT VP) is pleased to announce the extension of its partnership with Living Goods, a non-profit dedicated to saving lives at scale by supporting digitally empowered community health workers (CHWs) across Sub-Saharan Africa. LGT VP's non-programmatic grant will support the refinement of an optimized implementation support model in Kenya and Burkina Faso, and the development of a replicable blueprint to guide future expansion, as Living Goods enters its new strategy.
Only 48% of people in Africa have access to essential health services. With just 1.55 healthcare professionals per 1,000 people, Sub-Saharan Africa faces a severe workforce shortage that contributes to persistently high child and maternal mortality rates. While community health systems offer an affordable, proven alternative to facility-based care, they have historically been under-resourced and inconsistently implemented, limiting their impact.
Founded in 2007, Living Goods aims to maximize the potential of CHWs and has done so through its DESC approach: Digitally enabling, Equipping, Supervising, and Compensating CHWs to deliver affordable, high-quality care. A 2021 randomized controlled trial demonstrated the model's effectiveness, achieving a 30% reduction in under-five mortality and a 27% decrease in infant mortality: at a unit cost of approximately USD 2 per individual served per annum. This evidence base, and the organization's advocacy, has been instrumental in building government confidence, prompting partnerships with county governments in Kenya to support the operationalization of CHW systems. In the last year, Living Goods reached 9,000 CHWs serving 4.2 million individuals and increased government co-financing by 31% from the previous year to USD 8.5 million.
Funding shifts across the global health sector have required organisations to adapt their strategies. In response, Living Goods is sharpening its focus on building durable, government-led systems, providing technical expertise to strengthen policy, financing, and digital infrastructure, while institutionalising performance-driven tools and co-designing scalable innovations with governments to maximise impact on limited resources.
LGT VP’s healthcare strategy is centered on scaling access to quality, affordable community and primary health services to advance universal health coverage. Partnering with Living Goods not only aligns with LGT VP’s mission to scale quality primary healthcare access but also continues to offer insight into how healthcare can ultimately be delivered and financed at scale by governments. Nava Anvari, Investment Director at LGT Venture Philanthropy, says: "We are proud of the work Living Goods has achieved, particularly their deepened government partnerships, collaboration with ecosystem players such as CHU4UHC, and their ability to adapt and innovate in a shifting funding landscape. We are excited to continue together on this journey as they deliver impact more cost-efficiently to the communities they serve."
Mandy Folse, Chief of External Affairs of Living Goods, adds: "This renewed partnership comes at a pivotal moment for Living Goods. As we sharpen our focus on government-led, digitally enabled health systems, LGT VP's support allows us to translate nearly two decades of implementation experience into a replicable blueprint, one that we believe can reshape how community health is financed and delivered across Africa."
Living Goods, which was founded 19 years ago, is a Nairobi-based nonprofit operating in Kenya, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. The organization partners with governments to build high-performing community health systems, improving access to quality healthcare for families in need. Living Goods ensures community health workers (CHWs) have access to digital technology and medical treatments and are effectively supervised and compensated to deliver high quality and cost-effective services. By 2025, Living Goods was supporting 9,000 CHWs in Kenya, Uganda and Burkina Faso to deliver care to 4.2 million people. Learn more at www.livinggoods.org.
LGT Venture Philanthropy (LGT VP) is an independent charitable foundation established in 2007 with teams in Switzerland, Sub-Saharan Africa, and India. The Foundation strives to improve the quality of life of people facing disadvantages, contribute to healthy ecosystems, and build resilient, inclusive, and prosperous communities. LGT VP focuses on strengthening the capabilities of locally rooted organizations that deliver effective, scalable solutions across health, education, and the environment, contributing directly to the SDGs. For more information, please visit www.lgtvp.com.
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