By Zayamu Hassan
In an effort to sustain health services on the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of Canada, Senegal, the private sector along with the World Bank, have announced what they described as co-hosting role to “reclaim the gains” and mitigate the pandemic’s devastating impacts.
This was the outcome of a virtual event held by Ministers from Canada, Senegal, Netherlands, Norway, Nigeria, Ethiopia and many partners, entitled: reclaim the gains to discuss the crisis, call for urgent action..
They have, therefore, pledged over $200 million dollars to kickstart Global Financing Facility’s campaign to tackle COVID-19’s secondary health crisis for women, children and adolescents.
In a statement obtained by Health Reporters, both the public and private donors committed more than $200 million to the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) resource mobilization campaign to sustain essential health services in the wake of COVID-19 while bolstering fragile health systems for the roll out of COVID-19 tools.
The funds, the statement noted, are aimed at providing urgent support to countries experiencing up to a 25 percent disruption to health services, including access to childhood immunization programs, safe births, family planning services and child nutrition services.
These disruptions have precipitated a secondary health crisis leaving millions of women and children behind and threatening to roll back the remarkable gains made in maternal and child health over the last decade.
The statement further insisted that: “Without additional investment now, lives will be lost, and progress undone – hindering countries’ abilities to build human capital and recover from this health and economic crisis.”
Some of the countries that have so far made pledges include Canada which committed CAD 100 million, Netherlands-EUR 10 million, Norway which also committed NOK 300 million.
The government of Senegal, the statement said, is to co-finance GFF programs in Senegal and catalyze more domestic resources towards gender, education and health centered projects.
On the other hand, an international foundation donated $75 million from the remaining, but preferred to remain anonymous
Funds, according to the statement, “will help countries unleash more and better financing, reimagine the delivery of essential services, improve global health security, and reclaim the pre-COVID-19 health gains for women, children and adolescents – helping countries get back on track to reach the SDGs and achieve universal health coverage.
It would be recalled that in March this year, the GFF launched an urgent resource mobilization campaign to raise $1.2 billion by the end of 2021 to help countries protect essential health services for women, children, and adolescents, strengthen health systems as they prepare for the rollout of the COVID-19 tools, and recover from the pandemic with greater resilience.
This urgent call for funding is part of the GFF’s overall US$2.5 billion funding target for 2021–2025 that will enable the GFF to expand from 36 to 50 countries, contribute to saving an estimated 18 million lives, and mobilize nearly $53 billion in financing to improve the health and well-being of women, children, and adolescents by 2030.
