The Global Financing Facility (GFF) was launched in 2015 as the new approach to promote universal health coverage (UHC), in particular reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH). The GFF is a key financing platform of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. It is a country-driven financing partnership that brings RMNCAH stakeholders together, under national government leadership and ownership, to provide smart, scaled and sustainable financing to accelerate efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths by 2030.
Child mortality rate in low-income countries is more than 15 times higher than in high-income countries. And maternal mortality is nearly 30 times higher. Yet, with over 100 million children’s lives saved since 1990, the Lancet Commission on Investment and Health documented the feasibility of a grand convergence in mortality between low-income countries and the best-performing middle-income countries, with a return of nine to 20 per dollar invested.
Drawing on the experience of this innovative partnership, this seminar will showcase how the GFF is aiming to add value in promoting UHC and RMNCAH through a new way of financing development, and discuss its further roles in the global health arena.

Program

Opening Remarks

Yasusuke Tsukagoshi, Special Representative, Japan, World Bank Group

Presentation

Mariam Claeson, Director, Global Financing Facility
Shunsuke Mabuchi, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank

Commentator

Ikuo Takizawa, Deputy director general of the human development department at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)