Ministry Of Health In The Repu Blic Of The Marshall Islands

The Ministry of Health in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Bureau of Primary Health Care, is a foreign government territorial health authority that receives federal grant funding as a prime recipient for immunization, disease prevention, mental health services, maternal and child health, and public health emergency preparedness programs. The entity does not compete for federal contracts and operates exclusively on the federal grant mechanism, with 98 percent of recent awards as a prime recipient and three sub-awards from the University of Hawaii under cancer surveillance and registry programs. The Ministry operates across the Marshall Islands' five main islands and 29 atolls.

The Ministry's federal customer base centers on health agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads with 26 awards, the Health Resources and Services Administration with 19, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with 17, and the Department of the Interior's Insular Affairs office with 14 awards. These top four agencies account for approximately 57 percent of recent awards. Obligated dollars across the 150 awards in the source footprint total $143.6 million across a forty-year grant history, with the most recent award in September 2026.

The Ministry's capability portfolio spans six major federal grant programs. Under CDC's Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant (renewed annually through fiscal 2026), the Ministry delivers population health surveillance and prevention services. Through the Health Resources and Services Administration's Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant (CFDA 93.994), awarded in October 2025 for $604,763 through September 2027, the Ministry funds maternal and child health services including a newborn screening system priorities project ($1.57 million, awarded July 2024, running through June 2028) that implements blood spot and congenital heart defect screening across Majuro and Ebeye. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services (CFDA 93.958), awarded in October 2025 for $745,233 through September 2027, funds community-based mental health programming for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbance, with up to five percent administrative cost allocation and mandatory ten percent allocation to evidence-based early serious mental illness interventions.

CDC also funds the Ministry's immunization infrastructure through the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Cooperative Agreement (CDC-RFA-IP-25-0007), awarded July 2025 for a five-year term through June 2030, addressing vaccine-preventable disease prevention and vaccination confidence across the island nation. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion funds the Ministry's chronic disease prevention (awarded June 2025 through June 2030), maternal mortality review and surveillance (awarded September 2024 through September 2029), and national comprehensive cancer control programming (awarded June 2022 through June 2027) for breast and cervical cancer screening and colorectal cancer prevention. Emergency preparedness receives funding through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Hospital Preparedness Program (awarded July 2024 through June 2029) and CDC's Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement (awarded July 2024 through June 2029).

The Ministry also holds cooperative agreements for communicable disease programs under the National Center for HIV/AIDS (HIV, sexually transmitted disease, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis prevention and treatment, awarded January 2023 through December 2027) and the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (epidemiology, laboratory capacity, surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, and vector-borne disease programs, awarded August 2024 through July 2029). Smaller awards from the Bureau of Primary Health Care include bridge access programming and COVID-19 vaccination expansion, while the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy supports rural health network development (awarded July 2023 through June 2027).

Activity has fluctuated across recent years — six awards in 2022, eight in 2023, ten in 2024, six in 2025, and two in 2026 — with thirteen awards reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating a recompete cliff. Three sub-award relationships with the University of Hawaii support the Pacific Regional Central Cancer Registry project (sub-awards dated January 2026, October 2024, and November 2023). The Ministry's grant portfolio remains entirely within domestic HHS agencies and Interior, with no exposure to defense or civilian agencies outside health-sector programming.