Nigeria recommits $150m to feed malnourished children, women

Nigeria has recommitted $150 million annually to the Global Financing Facility to improve the well being of malnourished women, children and adolescents. This is in association with world leaders looking to raise $1 billion for the GFF.

Ten new investors, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, the European Commission, Germany, Japan, Laerdal Global Health, the Netherlands, Qatar and an anonymous donor have joined since the launch of the Global Financing Facility replenishment.

They join existing funders of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, MSD for Mothers, Norway, and the United Kingdom to fund the GFF to improve the health and nutrition of women, children and adolescents.

US$1 billion pledged to the GFF Trust Fund in Oslo is expected to link to an additional US$7.5 billion in International Development Association (IDA)/International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) resources for women, children and adolescents’ health and nutrition.

Burkina Faso reaffirmed its commitment to allocating at least 15 percent of its annual budget to improve health; Côte d’Ivoire committed to increasing its health budget 15 percent annually; and Nigeria recommitted to investing US$150 million per year from its budget to sustainably finance health and nutrition of women, children and adolescents.

US$1 billion will help the GFF partnership on the pathway toward expanding to as many as 50 countries with the greatest needs, to transform how health and nutrition are financed. Alongside other global health initiatives, this can contribute to saving and improving millions of lives by 2030.

The GFF is a catalyst for health financing that is helping countries to transform how they invest in women, children and adolescents because for too long, their health and nutrition has been chronically and persistently de-prioritized and underfunded—resulting in the preventable deaths of 5 million women and children every year. The GFF helps countries in three specific ways:

Developing an investment case and implementation plan prioritizing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition and a strong primary health care system.

Strengthening a country-led platform that aligns all key stakeholders around a prioritized health and nutrition plan; and working with countries to mobilize and coordinate the financial resources needed to accelerate progress for the most vulnerable populations in the hardest-to-reach regions.

“Today there is great hope that the world’s poorest countries can build healthy, vibrant futures where no woman, child or youth is left behind. The GFF partnership is effective and efficient—working with countries to develop the capacity to build and sustain the health systems their women and children need to survive and thrive,” Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway and co-chair of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocates said.

More than 2 billion people live in countries that spend less than $25 per capita on health. This is less than a third of what is needed for countries to provide basic, life-saving health services for their people. Through working with the GFF, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and other GFF-supported countries have shown that it is possible for all countries to improve their future and invest in the most vulnerable people in their societies by increasing investment in health.

It also demonstrates that generous, but relatively small financial contributions can—when aligned and spent catalytically and efficiently in support of national investment cases—have exponential impact by mobilizing additional financing and saving millions of lives.

Burkina Faso reaffirmed its commitment to allocating at least 15 percent of its annual budget to improve health; Côte d’Ivoire committed to increasing its health budget 15 percent annually; and Nigeria recommitted to investing US$150 million per year from its budget to sustainably finance health and nutrition of women, children and adolescents. Increasing domestic resources is an integral focus of GFF-supported countries.

“The GFF is about country-ownership—working with countries to set priorities, and drive domestic resource mobilization. These are the GFF’s great strengths. It makes the most compelling case for why countries must lead and put their own money on the table, and it reinforces the prioritization of resource allocation for basic social sectors, particularly the health sector,” Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, President of Burkina Faso said.

Donors and countries today responded to an urgent need for countries to transform health financing in order to accelerate progress on universal health coverage and to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets of ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths and improving the health and nutrition of women, children and adolescents.

“In 2018, all mothers should be able to protect their own health, and the health of their babies and children. But each day, 830 women die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth and 450,000 children under five die needlessly every month,” said Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank. “The GFF brings bold new thinking that aims to end this injustice through smart interventions and coordinated finance that can transform the health, wellbeing and life-chances of women, children and adolescents in developing countries.”

Today the World Bank, which hosts the GFF, announced that in just the last three years, US$482 million in funding from the GFF Trust Fund had been linked to US$3.4 billion in funding from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The US$1.005 billion pledged to the GFF Trust Fund in Oslo today is expected to link to an additional US$7.5 billion in IDA/IBRD resources for women, children and adolescents’ health and nutrition.

ANTHONIA OBOKOH