TCI helps local governments in Africa and Asia sustainably scale high-impact health interventions for urban poor communities.

The William H. Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health (WHGI) at Johns Hopkins University leads The Challenge Initiative (TCI), a global program dedicated to empowering cities to sustainably improve women’s sexual and reproductive health. TCI works with city governments in Africa and Asia to scale up high-impact reproductive health interventions, focusing on underserved communities. Its innovative approach integrates capacity building, coaching, financing, and health systems strengthening to ensure sustainable access to quality care, enhancing women’s ability to lead healthy, happy, and productive lives.

Since 2016, TCI has engaged 214 cities in LMICs across 13 countries, covering a population footprint of 280 million. Its efforts have contributed to more than 4.9 million additional family planning users and mobilized over $88 million in government commitments, with $50 million invested directly into implementing TCI’s interventions. Over 100 cities have “graduated” from direct TCI support and are now independently sustaining health programs.

We envision a world where every woman has access to the health care she needs to survive and thrive. 

America’s first research university. Leading discovery and sharing knowledge to better the world since 1876.

“What are we aiming at?”

That’s the question that Johns Hopkins University's first president, Daniel Coit Gilman, asked at his inauguration in 1876. What is this place all about, exactly? His answer:

“The encouragement of research . . . and the advancement of individual scholars, who by their excellence will advance the sciences they pursue, and the society where they dwell.”

Gilman believed that teaching and research go hand in hand—that success in one depends on success in the other—and that a modern university must do both well. He also believed that sharing our knowledge and discoveries would help make the world a better place.

In 145 years, we haven’t strayed from that vision. This is still a destination for excellent, ambitious scholars and a world leader in teaching and research. Distinguished professors mentor students in the arts and music, humanities, social and natural sciences, engineering, international studies, education, business, and the health professions. Those same faculty members, along with their colleagues at the university’s Applied Physics Laboratory, have made us the nation’s leader in federal research and development funding every year since 1979.

That’s a fitting distinction for America’s first research university, a place that has revolutionized higher education in the U.S. and continues to bring knowledge and discoveries to the world.

Johns Hopkins University

The Challenge Initiative

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