New Multi-Year Commitment Will Ensure That Millions of Women, Children and Adolescents Can Survive and Thrive

WASHINGTON D.C. – Today, the Government of Canada announced an additional CAD$150 million in new funding for the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF). This funding is a new multi-year commitment to the GFF Trust Fund for the period 2020 to 2022, in addition to CAD$50 million in funds announced at the GFF Replenishment in November 2018.

“Thanks to the Global Financing Facility, millions more women, adolescents and children have better access to quality health and nutrition services,” said Maryam Monsef, Canada’s Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality. “If we are going to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we are going to need more innovative financing mechanisms like the GFF that encourage lower income countries to invest more in health and nutrition—and ultimately in the potential of their citizens to transform our world for the better.”

Canada’s announcement follows the GFF replenishment event in November 2018 that raised more than US$1 billion for the GFF Trust Fund. The GFF recently announced that with this funding, it would expand to nine new countries, bringing the total number of GFF-supported countries to 36. GFF investments in these countries are reaching the unreached, and the most greatly affected women, girls and adolescents, ensuring that they have opportunities to survive and thrive. 

“Canada generously contributed to the founding of the GFF and this new commitment will scale up the facility’s strong results to help more women and girls survive, thrive and succeed,” said Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank. “As a global leader on the gender equality agenda, Canada’s advocacy and expertise play a vital role in helping transform millions of lives. We look forward to our continued partnership”.

Since GFF was founded in 2015 by the World Bank, the governments of Canada and Norway, the United Nations and other partners, US$557 million in funding from the GFF Trust Fund has been linked to US$4.3 billion in funding from the World Bank’s International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

About the Global Financing Facility

The Global Financing Facility (GFF) is a multi-stakeholder partnership that is helping countries tackle the greatest health and nutrition issues affecting women, children and adolescents. The GFF Trust Fund is supported by the Governments of Burkina Faso, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Qatar, and the United Kingdom; the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Susan T. Buffett Foundation; the European Commission; Laerdal Global Health; and MSD for Mothers. The GFF supports governments to bring partners together around a country-led plan, prioritizing high-impact but underinvested areas of health. The GFF Trust Fund acts as a catalyst for financing, with countries using modest GFF Trust Fund grants to significantly increase their domestic resources alongside the World Bank’s IDA and IBRD financing, aligned external financing, and private sector resources. Each relatively small external investment is multiplied by countries’ own commitments—generating a large return on investment, ultimately saving and improving lives. Learn more: www.globalfinancingfacility.org and @theGFF

Contact: Christina Nelson, Global Financing Facility, +1 (202) 458-4372, cmnelson@worldbank.org