To give developing countries an extra push in achieving their health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the World Bank Group and governments of Canada, Norway, and the US announced the creation of an innovative Global Financing Facility (GFF) on Thursday. GFF will also help countries end preventable maternal and child deaths by 2030.
GFF resources will complement low-interest loans and grants from the World Bank Group to support countries in mobilising resources for their health programmes. Norway and Canada have already made initial commitments of $600 million and $200 million respectively to the financing facility.
“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 in an official release. “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 added.
GFF is being developed in collaboration by the UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, UNAIDS, UN Women, World Bank Group, partner countries, civil society organisations and the private sector. It will target development initiatives in the areas of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.