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ARCHIVED Australia Commits New Finance to Health Millennium Development GoalsAustralia is ramping up its commitment to the International Health Partnership (IHP+) by contributing a further $276 million, including $26 million for Nepal, to help the world’s poorest countries deliver better health care and meet the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announced the new money at the event Investing in Our Common Future: Healthy Women, Healthy Children, held in New York on 23 September and hosted by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Chairs of the High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems (the Taskforce). Australia has been fully engaged in a number of key initiatives designed to fulfil the IHP+ mandate of accelerating progress towards the health MDGs through improved coordination of donor and country activities, based around robust national health plans. Australia will provide $250 million to an expanded International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), as part of a global effort to meet the growing health resourcing gap identified by the Taskforce, on which Australia was represented. Developed by the UK in 2006, the IFFIm is an innovative mechanism that converts long-term aid commitments into immediate funding for health services. The IFFIm raises funds in international capital markets by issuing Triple-A-rated bonds, backed by binding commitments from sponsors like Australia. The mechanism allows donor countries to bring forward their future support to meet urgent health needs, and to repay these commitments over time. This will reduce the impact on donor country budgets which are already under pressure from the global recession. The GAVI Alliance (previously the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) has used funds raised to date to purchase vaccines and support national health systems. The GAVI Alliance is a global health partnership between the private and public sectors, committed to saving children's lives and protecting people's health by increasing access to immunisation in low-income countries. Large-scale results are already being achieved through IFFIm funding. In 2007, IFFIm funds helped avert a potentially devastating setback to the 20-year effort to eradicate polio, supporting the immunisation of more than 100 million children under the age of five, in 11 polio-affected countries. IFFIm funds are also going to yellow fever prevention campaigns in 12 West African countries, and WHO predicts this work will prevent approximately 687,000 deaths between now and 2050 in these high-risk countries. The expanded IFFIm will use this proven model to tackle broader health system challenges, such as training staff, purchasing essential drugs, and providing basic maternal and child health care services, as well as continuing support for immunisation programs. Mr Smith also announced a contribution of $26 million to a joint IHP+ effort to match the Government of Nepal’s commitment to a pro-poor and efficiently designed new health sector program. The UK and the World Bank also announced their intention to contribute to Nepal’s projected funding requirement of US$190 million. Australia’s new commitments and others announced by the governments of the UK, Norway, and the Netherlands will provide a total of US$1.0 billion to back substantial new investments in health systems now. In relation to other recommendations made by the Taskforce:
Mr Smith urged other partners to advocate for and support the Taskforce’s recommendations and take action to accelerate progress towards the health Millennium Development Goals, particularly on maternal and child health. More information: Foreign Minister Stephen Smith announcing the commitment at the Innovative International Financing for Health Systems forum, New York, September 23, 2009 Website: International Health Partnership AusAID media release: Healthy Women, Healthy Children: Australia Commits Funds to Save Lives World Bank media release: Leaders Commit New Finance to Tackle Women’s and Children’s Health in the Developing World
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