A press release made available on the 25th September 2014 mentioned that a new funding facility is establish to accelerate completion of the Millennium Development Goals and end preventable maternal and child deaths by 2030.
The World Bank Group and Governments of Canada, Norway, and the United States announced on the 25th September 2014 that they will jumpstart the creation of an innovative Global Financing Facility (GFF) to mobilize 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 close collaboration 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 organizations; 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 their efforts to mobilize additional domestic and international resources required 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 in the amounts 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 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), on behalf of the United States, is committed to working with partners to establish 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 up to $400 million in leveraged resources to these 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.”
