On April 24, 2017 the Global Financing Facility Investors Group (GFF IG) approved the GFF Civil Society Engagement Strategy to meaningfully involve nongovernmental stakeholders across sub-national, national, and global levels.
The strategy incorporates civil society skills and expertise to determine and achieve goals and targets—including those of the GFF partnership and countries, the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Specifically, the strategy seeks to ensure integration of civil society contributions to improving systems and processes at all levels, with a particular focus on countries. The agreement specifies civil society engagement in development, implementation, and accountability for both GFF country investment cases and health financing strategies.
Angeline Mutunga of Jhpiego and Advance Family Planning, and Dr. Aminu Magashi Garba of the Africa Health Budget Network presented the final strategy to the GFF IG on April 24th in Washington DC. Ms. Mutunga and Dr. Garba are the two civil society representatives to the GFF IG for the period of January 2017 to December 2018. They developed the strategy proposal with Susan Hurd of Global Health Visions and the GFF Civil Society Organizations (CSO) coordinating group over several months. The IG members unanimously voted for and approved the strategy at the April meeting.
Next, the CSO Coordinating group, together with the CSO representatives to the IG, will develop a detailed action plan and budget to support civil society engagement and present it to the IG for discussion in six months (by October 2017). The Partnership for Maternal and Child Health (PMNCH) has set aside US $100,000 to support catalytic actions in select countries as the fundraising phase begins. In the meantime, any partner wishing to contribute additional resources towards this strategy should contact Kadidiatou Toure at tourek@who.int.