November 2021 Newsletter

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Colleagues,

As we approach the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit in December and anticipate the finalized IDA20 replenishment, ACTION partners are pushing harder than ever to advocate for bold, measurable commitments from governments, IDBs, and other donors. Partners have leveraged CSO meetings, the media, and coalition networks to urge the World Bank to make serious nutrition-specific commitments within the Human Capital theme so that we can move the needle forward to end malnutrition and protect the world’s children.

I am saddened to learn about the news of the two confirmed new cases of wild poliovirus in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is one of only two countries in which this deadly virus remains active and the pandemic and political instability has gravely interrupted immunization services. It is critical that while we work to promote equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution, we do not lose ground in the fight to end other preventable diseases. I am hopeful, though, since organizations like ACTION partner Results Australia and UNICEF are continuing to advocate for and provide essential health services even amidst instability.

As we near the end of the year, ACTION partners are engaged in strategic planning and goal setting for 2022. We were excited to learn last week the U.S. will be hosting the Global Fund’s seventh replenishment conference. We are thinking creatively on how we can leverage the power of partnership and our broad coalition networks to influence the global health agenda in 2022 and influence key moments like the Global Fund replenishment and the CEPI replenishment conference.

Looking ahead, don’t miss out on all the great events coming up alongside the N4G Summit and Human Rights Day! See here for our events calendar.

In Solidarity! 

Vineeta Gupta, MD, JD, LL.M
Director, ACTION Secretariat

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Advocacy Updates

• Several partners participated and presented during the 2021 GFF Civil Society Coordinating Group Annual Meeting which took place virtually from November 10-11. Civil society partners had a chance to engage with GFF Secretariat leadership, get updates from country partners on the GFF project and impact of COVID-19 on RMNCAH and nutrition, discuss ways to collaborate on the Joint Learning Agenda and Advocacy and Accountability for Sustainable Health Financing, and plan priorities for next year. They shared some brief insight on key take-aways from the Global Financing Facility Annual Report 2020-2021 which was released in mid-November along with the new GFF Data Portal. 
• In an Oral Questions session in the House of Lords, seven peers pushed Minister Ahmad to address the UK’s contributions to and participation in Nutrition for Growth (N4G), with support from RESULTS UK in crafting the messaging and focus of questions. Minister Ahmad admitted that he had read civil society’s briefing, “Time for Action,” and that the recommendations were informing the government’s thinking. Minister Ahmad committed to raising N4G with his U.S. counterparts and said they are looking into implementation of the OECD policy marker.
• On behalf of Results Australia, big thanks to Louis da Gama for raising our understanding of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Myanmar. Thanks to Louis, Results Australia was able to shine a light on some of the issues facing the country in mainstream media outlets in Australia. See the Australian article here and an interview with Results Australia on ABC national news live here.
• On November 10, Results Australia hosted its annual Leadership Awards, a celebration to acknowledge and recognize the outstanding advocates, parliamentarians, journalists, and partner organizations helping to end global poverty. See the media release to read about the winners.
• WACI Health hosted a Youth Nutrition Advocacy Webinar that brought together a group of young people to share intel and brainstorm advocacy strategies to support the GFF Resource Mobilization effort and nutrition-focused resource mobilization efforts, in the lead up to the Nutrition for Growth Summit.
•  Results Australia is proud to have co-authored the report “Shot of Hope” as a part of the End COVID for All campaign, along with an Expert Advisory Group. This report makes the case for an ambitious, expansive, and intelligent investment to vaccinate the world. Read it now.
• The ICAN Multi-Lateral Financing WG updated its recommendations for the IDA20 replenishment with more specific and targeted asks. We focused on 3 areas: 1) Policy commitments, where we aimed to refine language; 2) Resource Windows – where we called for an increase in investments for the Crisis Response Window; and 3) Indicators, where we are pushing for wasting to be added as an indicator in the Results Measurement System.
• The 2021 World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings took place in October. REF ED and ACTION Chair Joanne Carter was invited to give opening remarks on the Human Capital  theme during the IDA20 Forum. WACI Health ED Rosemary Mburu moderated the CSO Roundtable with World Bank Executive Directors.
• The ACTION Secretariat hosted a webinar “Protecting Access to Health for Women + Girls in Afghanistan” which featured an all-women panel of human rights and global health experts. We heard from Negaya Chorley, CEO of Results International Australia, Afghan women with on-the-ground knowledge of the situation, among others. Watch the live recording here.
• ACTION partners will be giving input on the December Gavi Board meeting papers in the coming weeks. The Programme and Policy Committee has issued its recommendations on two main issues for consideration by the Board: COVAX strategic issues and disease surveillance and diagnostics in Gavi 5.0.
• For months, ACTION partners have been engaging in the IDA20 replenishment process. Ahead of the IDA Deputies Meeting at the end of October, several partners reached out to IDA Deputies. As a partnership, we sent a letter with recommendations to World Bank leadership on IDA20. In the next few weeks, we’ll be continuing that engagement by feeding into the call for input on IDA20 as well as updated recommendations ahead of the final negotiations taking place in December in Japan.
• October 24 was World Polio Day, a day to celebrate the progress we’ve made but also to create public and political will to fully eradicate the disease. In the early 20th century, polio paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children every year. The vaccine was introduced in the 1950s, and in 2021, there are now only 2 countries with endemic wild, naturally occurring poliovirus: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Global incidence of wild poliovirus has been decreased by 99%. Results Australia partnered with Global Citizen, Polio Australia, UNICEF Australia, and Rotary International Australia for a grassroots polio campaign; advocates used the media to highlight the need for the Australian government to invest in GPEI as the “one last push” to eradicate this disease.

News

• A coalition of civil society organizations in Australia, including ACTION partner Results Australia, released a new report urging the government to help “vaccinate the world” by donating 20 million extra COVID-19 doses. The report warns that some nations aren’t due to hit the 70% milestone until 2030.
• In Afghanistan, two new wildpolio virus cases have been confirmed. Routine immunization all around the world and in Afghanistan has been deeply impacted by the pandemic. It is critical that we continue to advocate for increased resources to ramp up immunizations so that we do not lose hard-fought progress made prior to the pandemic. Hear ACTION partner Results International Australia discuss the importance of vaccines in Afghanistan in our most recent webinar, Protecting Access to Health for Women and Girls in Afghanistan.
• GHA France Executive Director Patrick Bertrand spoke at a Politico event in Brussels on development of medicines in post-pandemic settings. Bertrand raised the issue of EU funding for R&D, a need for publicly driven priority setting, funding for TB, and a need for more transparency and accountability in the R&D process.                      
• Ahead of the G20 summit and alongside many other French civil society organizations, GHA participated in writing an op-ed on vaccine inequity in Libération newspaper. The op-ed calls on the G20 member countries to support the implementation of the TRIPS waiver on the COVID-19 vaccine.
• The Sydney Morning Herald reports that “Australia commits 10 million vaccines to south-east Asia”
• The Indy Star published an op-ed by a grassroots volunteer in the U.S.: “Op-Ed: The U.S plans to double global COVID vaccine donations. We should do even more.
• Le Devoir, the most influential French-language newspaper in Canada, published an op-ed by Results Canada and One Canada, “Partager la manne du FMI avec les pays moins nantis” (Sharing the IMF’s windfall with less well-off countries)
• RESULTS UK issued a joint press release with TAG and IAVI: “TB survivors from G20 countries call upon their leaders to invest $1 billion per year to develop new TB vaccines”
• The U.S. State Department announced on Nov 10 that the “United States to Host Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference”
• According to a new pre-print from The Lancet, from the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF), Johns Hopkins University, and a number of governments – concluded that the interruptions in essential healthcare during the pandemic between March 2020 and June 2021 led to 113,873 additional women and children’s deaths across 18 countries including Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Sierra Leone.  “This corresponds to an average of 2.6 indirect deaths per Covid-19 death officially reported in the same period,” the authors said. Telegraph: Two women and children lost lives for every Covid death in poorest countries.

Resources and Blogs

• Shot of Hope, a report co-authored by Results International Australia on how Australia can help #EndCOVIDForAll
• ACTION Secretariat Director, Dr. Vineeta Gupta, published a blog in U.S.News, “U.S. Is Missing an Opportunity to Prioritize Health Equity,” discussing the Biden Administration’s recent establishment of the Office on Climate Change and Health Equity. 
• See the latest blogs from GHA France:
  • Will the EU make HERA right for the public interest?
  • The European Parliament calls for openness, transparency and inclusiveness in Innovative Health Initiative
• RESULTS Educational Fund hosted its Global Poverty Monthly Policy Forum on the topic of U.S. Leadership to Fight Severe Malnutrition, and they published a blog post laying out the details of the bipartisan bill that would make big impact on global malnutrition.
• RESULTS UK joined ICAN UK to publish “Time for Action – A renewed UK commitment to nutrition”
• The Global Financing Facility Annual Report 2020-2021
• Draft IDA20 Deputies’ Report is open for Public Comments. The proposed IDA20 replenishment package is now at an advanced stage of preparation as the process draws closer to the pledging meeting to take place in Tokyo on December 14-15, 2021. The public is invited to review the IDA20 draft Deputies’ Report and provide comments by November 26, 2021.

Events and Opportunities

• Nov 20: World Children’s Day. More.
• Nov 23 at 10am ET: 2021 Global Nutrition Report: The state of global nutrition launch. More.
• Nov 24–26: Canadian Conference on Global Health. More.
• Nov 30 at 9am ET: Powering Women – Promising Futures. More.
• Nov 30 at 7am ET: Advancing PHC in Africa: Lessons and Opportunities for Advocacy. Hosted by WACI Health, PATH, and Speak Up Africa. More.
• Dec 1: World AIDS Day. More.
• Dec 2 at 6am ET: *N4G side event* Accountability for action: Breaking down barriers to strong commitment making. Hosted by RESULTS UK, Global Nutrition Report, and Access to Nutrition Initiative. More.
• Dec 7–8: Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit 2021. More.
• Dec 9-10: Global Health Landscape Symposium – From Security to Solidarity: Diverse Perspectives Against Global Health Threats. More.
• Dec 10 at 8am ET: *N4G side event* Rights-based policies for tackling malnutrition and advancing UHC. Hosted by the ACTION partnership. More.
• Dec 10: International Human Rights Day. More.
• Dec 12: Universal Health Coverage Day. More.
• Dec 14-15: IDA 20 Final Deputies Replenishment Meeting

Our thanks to James Kimer of Media Theory for providing design support services and public relations outreach.