I came across a very interesting article titled UN to bridge funding gap on health in the Financial Times last week (free registration required), which discusses a UN plan to launch a new initiative to raise billions of dollars in addition to government aid in order to meet basic health needs in developing countries. The plan would bring together eight existing innovative financing mechanisms for health.
The UK has been a strong supporter of innovative financing mechanisms, and we are keen to have them used to their full potential. This initiative sounds very interesting and I hope will stimulate more debate not only on the level of additional funding needed, but also on how that funding needs to be channelled, if it is to achieve sustainable impact.
In Mozambique, as you will have gathered from my last blog - there is a huge dependence on the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, and a real risk to health services if that funding dries up. We are also in discussions with the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), to try to secure GAVI funding to support increased capacity in the health sector, to underpin national efforts to scale up immunisation coverage. GFATM and GAVI are already working closely together, with joint missions to Mozambique, but the idea of forging links with other sources of innovative financing has not yet been widely discussed. This may be just what Mozambique needs in order to mobilise the longer term, more predictable funding needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. I will try to find out more....
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