GFF raises more than half of $800M goal, but time is running out

The Global Financing Facility announced Monday during a replenishment event that it has raised $445 million, but falls short of the $800 million it needs to support the health of women, children, and adolescents through 2025. The total amount pledged includes a $90 million multidonor trust fund that the United States has established to support GFF — the first time that the U.S. has directly contributed to the facility. However, when Atul Gawande, from the U.S. Agency for International Development, announced the creation of the fund during the event at the World Health Summit, he said the country’s initial contribution is $4 million from global health security money, but that the U.S. will “continue to raise funds” toward the broader $90 million umbrella fund. It is not clear, though, when these additional funds might be available. In addition, some of the commitments incorporated into the total — including a £80 million ($97.5 million) commitment from the United Kingdom — extend beyond the 2025 window. The U.K.’s new five-year contribution only begins in 2025. Nevertheless, the World Bank’s Juan Pablo Uribe, who serves as director of GFF, said he believes the facility is on track to meet its $800 million fundraising target by the end of the year. “With our commitments, with ongoing conversations, with our new partners coming in, we will not only reach but surpass [it] in the coming months,” he said at the close of the pledging event. Housed within the World Bank, GFF was formed in 2015 to distribute relatively small grant funds that are designed to catalyze domestic and private investments in health care initiatives for women, children, and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries. The emphasis is on country-led initiatives, and all GFF investments go through national budgets. Since its formation, donors have contributed more than $2 billion to GFF. More significantly, for every $1 of grant financing, the facility has tagged on an additional $7 in World Bank funds, thanks to its links to financing through the World Bank’s International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The result, according to GFF, is that 103 million women have delivered their babies safely, more than 500 million women have received modern family planning services, and 187 million unintended pregnancies have been prevented. Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, Liberia’s health minister, praised GFF at the pledging event. Her country was approved for a $16 million GFF grant in 2017 and another $11 million grant in 2022 to improve essential health services. It “really helped reaching the hard-to-reach areas,” Jallah said. “Their funding is not restricted, so you can do a lot more with what they gave you.” An additional $800 million would ultimately mobilize $20.5 billion by 2025, according to the organizers behind the fundraising drive, and would help the fund achieve its goal of reaching 250 million women, children, and adolescents with essential health services in 2030. Dubbed the “Deliver the Future” campaign and launched earlier this year, the fundraising effort was spearheaded by Germany, the Netherlands, and Côte d’Ivoire. “Ongoing crises are making it much harder to invest in women’s health as countries have constrained budgets and competing health priorities,” said Svenja Schulze, Germany’s minister of economic cooperation and development, to explain why Germany was putting specific emphasis on a facility dedicated specifically to women, adolescents, and children. She also announced a donation of €25 million ($26.35 million) for 2024. Pascalle Grotenhuis, the director-general for international cooperation in the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the funding effort comes at a particularly critical moment amid attacks on women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, or SRHR. “We are witnessing a rollback of these established rights,” she said. “For me it proves that SRHR can never be taken for granted. GFF supports country-led approaches to ensure sustainability. It integrates SRHR as an essential component of health programs.” Her government committed €100 million, with €10 million designated specifically for Ukraine. Despite the support, it’s unclear whether GFF will reach its funding goal by the end of the year. Norway’s State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Bjørg Sandkjær said her country — historically one of the facility’s biggest donors — would be making a commitment, but not until Norway’s budget was finalized. Even as the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, with a $50 million commitment, joined the U.S. as the other first-time donor, two previous donors, the European Commission and Qatar, did not make any new investments. In the U.K., meanwhile, officials offered to contribute another £18 million contingent on evidence that GFF is maximizing efficiencies across health investments and encouraging more climate resilience and responsiveness in the health sector. But they also want to wait and see the outcome of an independent evaluation scheduled for next year. Update, Oct. 18, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify that the $800 million would ultimately catalyze $20.5 billion.