Palau Ministry Of Health

Palau Ministry Of Health, doing business as Palau National Government, is a foreign government health authority that serves as a prime recipient of federal grants for public health, mental health, substance abuse prevention, maternal and child health, and infectious disease surveillance and response programs. The organization operates as the sole health authority for the Republic of Palau and holds no federal contracts; all federal funding flows through competitive grant awards from health and human services agencies.

Palau Ministry Of Health is headquartered in Koror, Palau, and operates the Belau National Hospital, the nation's only public hospital. The ministry comprises four main bureaus: the Bureau of Public Health Services, the Bureau of Hospital and Clinical Services, the Bureau of Nursing, and the Bureau of Health Administration and Support Services. It also manages the Palau Community Health Center through a community-led governing board. The organization serves a population of approximately 17,614 residents distributed across sixteen states, with nine inhabited islands; the main administrative and economic center is Koror. By U.S. standards, Palau is classified as a rural, medically underserved, and technologically divided island nation, with the nearest major cities being Manila (528 miles), Guam (722 miles), and Tokyo (1,890 miles).

Federal funding concentrates heavily in HHS grant programs. The top customer agencies by award count are the CDC (44 awards), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (24 awards), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (18 and 14 awards across distinct funding streams). These five lines account for 113 of 178 total awards, representing 63% of the organization's federal footprint. Combined dollars obligated across all awards total $228.7 million over the source data span, with the most recent award dated September 30, 2026.

Recent prime grant work includes a $422,961 Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances award (CFDA 93.104) from SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services, effective through September 2030, to implement a system of care for youth ages 0–21 with serious emotional disturbance across school, prenatal, and community screening, evidence-based trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and wraparound services, and cross-system care coordination. Palau also received a $201,996 Grants to States for Loan Repayment award (CFDA 93.165) from HHS's Bureau of Health Professionals, effective through June 2029, to fund primary healthcare clinician loan repayment in Health Professional Shortage Areas. A $388,779 Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant (CFDA 93.994) from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, effective through September 2027, supports maternal and child health system-of-care development for vulnerable populations lacking adequate healthcare access.

Additional active federal grant commitments include multiple block grants for community mental health services, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and preventive health services; cooperative agreements for vaccine-preventable disease prevention (July 2025–June 2030), chronic disease prevention and control (June 2025–June 2030), and public health emergency preparedness and hospital preparedness (July 2024–June 2029); and collaborative agreements for epidemiology and laboratory capacity for infectious diseases, behavioral risk factor surveillance, and maternal mortality review and surveillance. Palau also holds awards for opioid use disorder prevention and treatment, family planning services, pediatric mental health care access, cancer prevention and control, and HIV/viral hepatitis/STD/TB prevention in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific region.

Activity has remained relatively flat over the past five years (ranging from 3 to 14 awards annually), with 2024 being the most active year at fourteen awards. Seventeen awards are scheduled for ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating a recompete window. The organization acts as a sub-recipient on two federal grant awards from the University of Hawaii under the Pacific Regional Central Cancer Registry (PRCCR) program (sub-awards dated November 2025 and December 2024) and holds a subcontract from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Inc. for technical assistance under a mental health coalition initiative (dated March 2024). Prime awards dominate the footprint at 98% of all funding, with sub-awards representing 2%.