Large philanthropies teamed up with national governments to commit $806 million towards preventing maternal and child deaths.
The Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation announced commitments of $200 million and $150 million, alongside pledges that either dwarfed or equaled pledges made by various governments.
The Netherlands pledged $186 million, Canada’s government pledged $190 million Canadian dollars ($139 million US dollars), while Norway pledged $64 million. Germany pledged the smallest amount at 45 million euros ($52 million). Japan, Indonesia and Guinea also pledged their support.
Public-private funding pledges came under the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), part of the sidelines of the World Bank Group-IMF spring meetings. Funders said there is a five-year plan towards helping end preventable maternal and child deaths.
The GFF said it plans to expand its operations from 36 to 50 countries with the highest maternal and child mortality and hopes to reach 1.5 billion people with affordable health by 2030.
‘Supporting countries to end preventable deaths of children and mothers is a goal [of] CIFF, the GFF, and our partners are all united by. To support country leadership to achieve this, we need to remove the practical barriers, including limited access to essential supplies,’ said Kate Hampton, CEO, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.
While philanthropy-public mechanisms grow in popularity, others argue that funding practice has increased marginalisation.
‘Philanthropy funded the extinction of community midwifery through its obsession with evidence-based outcomes and scalable solutions. That same funding practice logic is still being applied today,’ said Georgina Dukes-Harris, Founder and CEO of Swishvo, exploring the maternal mortality crisis in the United States that disproportionately affects women of colour.
The GFF funding announcement comes amid funding pressures, including shrinking overseas aid budgets, hitting maternal programmes, and more widely for women and girls, worldwide.
Nearly 9 million people worldwide are estimated to lose access to contraception, HIV testing, and clinical care for survivors of gender-based violence because of US funding cuts.
In February, over 1,200 feminist funders called for countries to pay up crucial withheld money towards the United Nations.
Shafi Musaddique is the news editor at Alliance magazine
