Ban Ki-moon launches a new financing facility to invest in women, children and adolescents

On 13th July 2015, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, formally launched the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child. Global health leaders were joined by representatives of the United Nations, the World Bank Group, and the Governments of Canada, Norway and the United States for the high level event.

Speakers highlighted the $12 billion in domestic, international, private and public funding which has already been aligned to country-led five-year investment plans for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and announced the four GFF front-runner countries: The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

“We need innovative financing at scale and game-changing partnerships to support the updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health and subsequent Every Woman Every Child movement. Today, I will formally launch the Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child, a key financing platform for this updated Global Strategy.” – Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations Secretary-General.

At the launch, the World Bank Group announced a new GFF partnership with its International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) to raise funds from capital markets for countries with significant funding gaps for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH). This ground-breaking partnership expects to mobilize between $3 to $5 dollars from the private capital markets for every $1 dollar invested into the GFF.  The Government of Canada is jumpstarting this initiative with a $40 million investment towards two focus areas: one that prioritizes strengthening front-line health systems and scaling-up of community health workers, and another that focuses on the control of malaria to reduce child mortality.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Japan, and the United States announced new financing commitments totalling $214 million.  This is in addition to commitments previously made by Norway and Canada of $600 million and $200 million, respectively, to the World Bank Group-managed GFF Trust Fund. The GFF has set in motion an unprecedented movement among countries, United Nations agencies and multilateral agencies including the World Bank Group, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as well as public and private sector financiers and civil society organizations, to increase and align funding in support of countries’ health priorities and plans, to drive transformative improvements in the health of women, children and adolescents everywhere. Today’s announcements are a first step to help close the $33.3 billion annual funding gap for RMNCAH.

“We made this commitment because improving the health of women and children is not only the right thing to do, it’s also one of the smartest investments we can make to reduce poverty and improve well-being. In the last 25 years, we’ve had unprecedented progress in reducing maternal and child mortality, and now we must take the next step to end preventable deaths.” – Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank

The GFF partners also announced the next group of eight countries to benefit from the GFF, with the goal of supporting 62 high-burden low- and lower-middle income countries within five years. The GFF is adding Bangladesh, Cameroon, India, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda as the second wave of GFF countries.

Learn more about the event: Every Woman Every Child 

Learn more about the Third International Conference on Financing for Development: Nutrition at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development

Every Woman Every Child

Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) is an initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General that is building political momentum among member states to to save the lives of 16 million women and children and improve the lives of millions more. As part of the initiative, countries are making ambitious pledges to do more for women’s and children’s health.

Learn more: Every Woman Every Child   

Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health

An update to the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health is being coordinated by The Partnerships for Maternal Newborn & Child Heath (PMNCH), under the Every Woman Every Child umbrella. A global stakeholder consultation has taken place and the updated Global Strategy will be launched in September 2015. It is a roadmap for ending all preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents by 2030 and improving their overall health and well-being. It will build on new evidence since the original Strategy of 2010, including the need to focus on critical population groups such as newborns, adolescents and those living in fragile and conflict settings. It will also align with the targets and indicators developed for the Sustainable Development Goals framework.

Visit the hub: Shaping the future for health women, children & adolescents