Two years ago, Wellcome made a statement recognising that they have perpetuated racism, and made a commitment to becoming an anti-racist organisation. In an effort to assess progress against these commitments, Wellcome commissioned The Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC) and The Better Org (TBO) to undertake an evaluation of efforts to date. TSIC and TBO were supported in this endeavour by advisory from Lyn Cole Consultancy

The evaluation has now concluded, and our final assessment has found that though there have been some areas of progress since 2020, overall Wellcome has failed to meet its own anti-racist commitments and has remained an institutionally racist organisation. In response to this assessment, the report also outlined several short term, mid-term, and long-term actions Wellcome could take to begin transforming the experiences of staff and grantees, particularly those identifying as Black or People of Colour. 

We are pleased to see Wellcome Leadership’s acceptance of our report and its decision to accept several recommendations immediately, and applaud the organisation’s willingness to make the full report public and take accountability for taking restorative action in response to the report findings. 

We thank Wellcome staff and grantees who participated in this evaluation, particularly those for whom this process required additional emotional and mental input.

Anti-Racism is a continual journey, which requires vulnerability, transparency, accountability and a commitment to changes to practice (and not just process). We wish Wellcome well on this journey, and look forward to seeing transformative changes to their internal operations, and their influence on the external global health funding landscape.

https://wellcome.org/news/update-wellcomes-anti-racism-programme