Multiple Shifts in Financing for Development: Outcomes from Addis Ababa

Following the Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa, two blogs written by RESULTS UK child health team, Jim Calverley and Megan Wilson-Jones, were posted on the Global Health Council’s blog. Below is a summary and link to each of the blogs: 1. The Global Financing Facility (GFF) for Every Women Every Child: A paradigm shift in development financing

Yesterday on the first day of the conference, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon officially launched the Global Financing Facility (GFF) in support of Every Women Every Child. The GFF aims to “accelerate efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths” by mobilising both domestic and international resources, improving the coordination of these funds and reducing inefficiencies in health spending over time. As such, the facility will form a key vehicle for financing the proposed healthy lives Sustainable Development Goal, and the revised Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health, helping to bring an end to extreme poverty by 2030. Link to read the blog: GFF: A Paradigm shift in development financing 2. The Shifting Sands of Health

Kenya is one of many developing countries that has recently graduated from being a low income country (LIC) to a lower middle income country (LMIC). This should be a good thing – middle income countries are the engines of global growth and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, economic growth is to be welcomed given that the African continent accounts for such a small proportion of the world’s imports/exports. But does the marginal economic growth from a low to a middle income country always translate into better health outcomes for the population?  Given that the highest disease burdens for child health and infectious diseases are in countries that are classified as middle income suggests not. Link to read the blog: The shifting sands of health