2020 is a landmark year for the Global Financing Facility (GFF) as it celebrates its fifth year in the global health landscape. 

Strong partner support, and a milestone replenishment of US$1 billion in 2018 have enabled the GFF to make significant progress over the past five years. The GFF has: 

  • Expanded from four to 36 countries with the world’s highest maternal and child mortality burden and financial needs – one third of these are classified as fragile and conflict states; 
  • Contributed to improved health services for women, children and adolescents in several countries that are now beginning to see lower neonatal and under-five mortality rates; 
  • Propelled a process to enable countries to allocate more of their national budget to health, helped coordinate partner resources, and strengthened private sector engagement in the sector 

Country demand and support for the GFF is growing as countries feel they are driving change and seeing the value of the GFF’s technical assistance in aligning financing around their most pressing health priorities. As of June 2019, US$629 million of GFF Trust Fund grants had been linked to US$4.8 billion of World Bank IDA and IBRD financing – 78 percent of this in Africa. 

Counting down to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the GFF’s ability to extend its impact is more urgent than ever. A strategy refresh provides an opportunity for the GFF to sharpen its scope, expand its scale, capitalize on gains made, and learn from what has worked and what hasn’t, eventually positioning it to better support country-led investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N) outcomes. 

The strategy refresh process is expected to be completed by the end of June 2020. The GFF secretariat is conducting interviews with more than 100 stakeholders to incorporate perspectives, best practices, and lessons learned from the GFF approach over the past five years. The GFF Secretariat will provide periodic updates on the process.  

 For more information, please contact: Carolyn Reynolds creynolds@worldbank.org