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The COVID-19 crisis is reversing years of hard-won gains in women, children and adolescent health. One year on, with disrupted health systems and economies severely impacted, women and children in the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries have been hardest hit by this secondary crisis. To help countries reclaim the gains, the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), a partnership hosted at the World Bank, has launched a resource mobilization campaign to raise $1.2 billion by the end of 2021 to protect essential health services and strengthen health systems, as countries prepare for the rollout of COVID-19 tools and strive for a resilient and inclusive recovery. The campaign is co-hosted by the governments of Canada and Senegal, along with the World Bank.
Read Op-Ed: Don’t let Covid-19 turn back progress on the health of women and children
Watch the GFF Launch Event ‘Reclaim the Gains’ which took place virtually on May 7, 2021. The event brought together ministers from Canada, Senegal, Netherlands, Norway, Nigeria, and Ethiopia and many other partners and community representatives to discuss the crisis, call for urgent action, and pledge their support to the GFF campaign.
Read Press Release: Global leaders pledge more than USD 200 million to kickstart GFF’s campaign to tackle COVID-19’s secondary health crisis for women, children and adolescents
With disrupted health systems stretched to breaking point and economies severely impacted, women and children in the world’s poorest countries have been hit the hardest by this secondary crisis.
The pandemic has already disrupted contraceptive use for more than 5 million women and adolescents living in GFF partner countries.
Severe disruptions in essential health services in GFF partner countries have contributed up to a 25% drop in coverage of lifesaving health interventions since the pandemic struck.
4 million pregnant women unable to receive childbirth care.
82 million children going without oral rehydration.
17 million children missing vaccinations.
The GFF needs $1.2 billion by the end of 2021 to help countries maintain essential services for women, children and adolescents, strengthen health systems as they prepare for the rollout of the COVID-19 tools needed to end the pandemic, recover with greater resilience, and accelerate progress toward the SDGs.
A further US$1.3bn is needed to support the GFF’s work from 2023-2025. This will help meet country demand and enable the GFF to expand to a total of 50 of the world’s poorest countries.
New investments in the GFF Trust Fund – including US$1.2 billion frontloaded in 2021 to confront the continuing crisis will:
The GFF is primed and ready to ensure that the world’s most vulnerable women, children and adolescents are not left behind by the crisis.
Launched in 2015 as a country-led, global partnership and housed at the World Bank, the GFF is squarely focused on supporting countries to prioritize and scale up evidence-driven investments to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition in the world’s most vulnerable countries through targeted strengthening of service delivery systems—to save lives and as a critical step toward achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Read more about how the GFF works
The Global Financing Facility can be proud of having invested in human capital in Africa, improving the lives of millions of women, children and adolescents around the world, including in Senegal. We are honoured to co-host the GFF 2021 Resource Mobilization Campaign and are delighted to register today’s first contributions from partners, showing the way to the international community to accelerate efforts amidst this unprecedented crisis.
This is a critical point in time. We all need to come together to make sure that the needs of women, girls and adolescents—who have borne the brunt of health service reductions—is a priority. This is our opportunity to fully resource the GFF to support essential services and address inequalities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
To ensure that the impact of COVID-19 does not turn back the clock for women, children and adolescents, we must put them at the center of response and recovery, including by building better, more inclusive health systems. With its strong track record of success, the GFF-World Bank collaboration is fit for purpose to reclaim gains and accelerate progress by investing in the health of women, children and adolescents.
Now is the time for all of us to double down on our shared commitment: To ensure the world is solidly on the path to realizing the goal that every woman, child, and adolescent ― everywhere ― can access the essential, quality, affordable health care they need to survive and thrive.
The urgency and need to ensure continuity of health services at all levels cannot be underscored. This must be a fully financed priority in order to reduce preventable deaths of women, children and adolescents. We can work with the GFF to ensure that this is the case.
Working with the GFF shows what’s possible when young people’s voices are heard and they are given the opportunity to shape, implement and monitor the policies that will impact their families and communities.
It is one of the best experiences to provide birth registration services to citizens knowing that they won’t have to travel to the sector offices to register their newborns. A timely and easy service made possible with the new system is a big milestone.
Don’t let COVID-19 turn back progress on the health of women, children, and adolescents.
We stand with the heroes on the frontlines. Do you?
WatchCSOs and youth advocates have stepped up to the COVID-19 crisis. Listen to what they have to say.
WatchLearn how Rwanda has built stronger health systems by investing in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics.
Read MoreHear from some of the heroes on the frontlines who are leading the fight against this alarming reversal of progress for women, children and adolescents.
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