Sunday Observer Online
 

Home

Sunday, 5 October 2014

Untitled-1

observer
 ONLINE


OTHER PUBLICATIONS


OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified
Government Gazette

Global financing facility to boost women's, children's health

New York: The World Bank Group and Governments of Canada, Norway, and the United States will jump start the creation of an innovative Global Financing Facility (GFF) to mobilise support for developing countries' plans to accelerate progress on the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and bring an end to preventable maternal and child deaths by 2030.

The GFF, in support of Every Woman Every Child, is being developed in cooperation with a broad range of stakeholders, including partner countries; the H4+ agencies (UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, UNAIDS, UN Women and the World Bank Group), civil society organisations, bilateral and multilateral development partners, foundations, private sector and others working in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.

The GFF will support countries in efforts to mobilise additional domestic and international resources needed to scale up and sustain essential health services for women, children and adolescents.

The initial donor commitments to the World Bank Group for the GFF include grants of $600 million from Norway and $200 million from Canada. The GFF resources will be provided to countries in conjunction with low-interest loans and grants from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank Group's fund for the poorest countries.

Based on strong country demand for health results-based financing programs, these bilateral contributions could leverage up to an estimated $3.2 billion from IDA, for a total of up to $4 billion in financing to support MDG acceleration and improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), on behalf of the United States, is committed to working with partners to set up the GFF, bringing its full arsenal of innovative financing mechanisms and public-private partnerships to the collaboration.

Aligning USAID's support through these complementary mechanisms could bring upto $400 million in leveraged resources to the efforts.

"The creation of the Global Financing Facility will enable us to transform the business of global health and development with scaled-up, smart and sustainable financing, so that all women and children have access to lifesaving care," said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim.

"This signals our collective resolve as development partners to help countries push further and faster to bring an end to preventable maternal and child deaths and extreme poverty," he said.

The support to create the GFF was pledged by global leaders at the high-level event for Every Woman Every Child during the 69th UN General Assembly.

The GFF will be designed to support the goals of the Every Woman Every Child global movement and the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in September 2010 and supported by the G-8 Muskoka Initiative on Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, launched under the leadership of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "Under the Every Woman Every Child partnership model, the health community is leading the way in finding innovative solutions and expanding new partnerships. For the first time ever, we have the historic opportunity to end all preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths within a generation."

"This new funding boost and innovative financing approach will help us get closer to that goal, with United Nations agencies and multiple partners playing a major role," he said.

The GFF will build on the experience, capacity and strong track record of the Health Results Innovative Trust Fund at the World Bank Group to support developing countries' national plans for scaling up access to quality reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway said, "Norway is committed to support the Global Financing Facility. With its diversification of resources, results focus and targeting of girls and women, this is tailor-made for the new development agenda."

A unique aspect of the GFF is to support developing countries in their transition to long-term sustainable domestic financing as they grow from low to middle-income economies.

The facility is expected to mobilise additional domestic and international funds from a variety of sources, including other bilateral and multilateral donors, domestic budgets, the private sector and innovative financing mechanisms.

A special focus area of the GFF will be to support countries to expand Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) efforts toward universal registration of every pregnancy, every birth and every death by 2030.

- World Bank

 

 | EMAIL |   PRINTABLE VIEW | FEEDBACK

ANCL TENDER for CTP PLATES
www.news.lk
www.defence.lk
Donate Now | defence.lk
www.apiwenuwenapi.co.uk
LANKAPUVATH - National News Agency of Sri Lank
www.batsman.com
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL)
www.army.lk
 

| News | Editorial | Finance | Features | Political | Security | Sports | Spectrum | Montage | Impact | World | Obituaries | Junior | Youth |

 
 

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2014 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Editor