04/11/2020
The World Health Organization (WHO) is developping a...
2 October 2014
An initiative to expand financing of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) was launched in New York on 24 September.
The Global Financing Facility (GFF) was developed to support the Every Woman Every Child movement and contribute to ending preventable maternal and child deaths. Many countries have made substantial progress in reducing maternal and child mortality, two of the Millennium Development Goals, and this initiative is intended to support country plans to continue and sustain these positive trends.
The GFF will support countries in their efforts to mobilize international and domestic funding for services to improve RMNCAH. International funding will be available for scaling up access to health services. It will also help to fund development of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems as a tool for monitoring progress and for accountability. In addition the GFF will support countries to identify sustainable financing strategies for health services in the longer term, from a range of domestic and international sources.
Support for the GFF announced so far (in September 2014) includes:
- $600 million provided by Government of Norway
- $200 million from Government of Canada
- The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) for the poorest countries will make available up to $3.2 billion in low-interest loans and grants to countries that apply for health results based financing
- USAID, on behalf of the US Government, committed to collaborate with the GFF on innovative financing and public private partnerships, valued as a further $200-400 million of support.
The details of how funding will be channelled and how countries can apply are still under development. Design of the GFF involves a range of partners through a high-level working group with some representatives from countries and civil society organisations, as well as UN and other agencies. It is anticipated that the facility will become operational in mid to late 2015.
Press release from World Bank
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/09/25/development-partners-support-creation-global-financing-facility-women-children-health
Press release from Every Woman Every Child http://everywomaneverychild.org/images/FINALEWEC_Press_.pdf