Zimbabwe like other 35 low-and lower- middle- income countries stand to benefit from the Global Financing Facility (GFF) an innovative approach to financing that sees countries significantly increase investment in the health of their own people.
The GFF supports government-led, multi-stakeholder platforms to develop and implement a national, prioritized health plan (an investment case), that aims to help mobilize sustainable financing for health and nutrition.
The GFF was launched at the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa in July 2015 by the United Nations and the World Bank as part of an effort to achieve goal three of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Zimbabwe was accepted a beneficiary of GFF funding in May 2019 and will receive USD25 million (over 3-year period) for Zimbabwe to help catalyze and drive the financial innovations to attain a grand convergence in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) by 2030.
GFF Donors include governments of Canada, Norway, and the United States. Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, The United Kingdom and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Susan T, Buffet Foundation, Laerdal Global Health and MSD for Mothers.
According to World Health Organization report on Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Woman Every Child. The overall goal of the GFF will be to contribute to the global efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths and improve the health and quality of life of women, adolescents and children. It is estimated that compared with current trends, an accelerated investment scenario would help prevent a total of 4 million maternal deaths, 107 million child deaths, and 21 million stillbirths between 2015 and 2030 in 74 high-burden countries.
In support of Every Woman Every Child (EWEC) initiative, the GFF seeks to mobilize support for developing countries to end preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths by 2030, and finance Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 “Healthy lives.” In driving achievement of SDG3 related to RMNCAH, the GFF seeks to end preventable deaths and improve the quality of life of women, children and adolescents by significantly scaling up sustainable investments. It envisions that between 2015 – 2030, scale up in high burden countries could prevent up to: 4 million maternal deaths; 107 million child deaths, and 22 million stillbirths.