March Newsletter

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to first recognize all the incredible women working every day to make this world a better place. On International Women’s Day and every day, it’s vital that women empower one another and #BreakTheBias by rejecting false stereotypes we may have about women who are different from us. This is also a time to acknowledge how far we have yet to go and to renew our commitment to equity and equality for all!

As today marks two years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, it is clearer now more than ever how critical global health advocacy that is rooted in equity and anti-oppression is. We must expand equitable and affordable access to vaccines and strengthen health systems around the globe, not just in the west.

Just this week, ACTION partners made a final push to galvanize donors in support of the CEPI replenishment #100DaysMission to end epidemics and save lives. ACTION engaged on social media and hosted conversations with civil servants and MPs to get as many champions for pledging as possible. As the summit drew to a close on March 8, the international community pledged US$1.54 billion in total.

U.S. nutrition advocates have launched their annual #March4Nutrition campaign to amplify the importance of nutrition for moms and babies around the world. Week 1 is on the theme of women’s nutrition: “Access to proper nutrition can help women grow their power.”

It has been exciting to see various partners, including HDT and  WACI Health, engage around the 7th Global Fund Replenishment. This week, the torch caravan crossed the Atlantic, where the U.S. White House will host the next donor pledging summit for the Global Fund. Advocates are calling on the U.S. and others to invest at least $18 billion to put the Global Fund partnership’s plan into action: supporting communities to save 20 million lives and build the equitable health systems needed for the pandemics of today and of the future.

Counting as a Nutrition for Growth commitment, the UK government announced a financial pledge on February 2 to nutrition programs of up to £1.5 billion between 2022 and 2030. RESULTS UK issued a statement welcoming the pledge but noting that it marks a “significant reduction” in funding for nutrition programs. RESULTS UK sees this pledge as a “first step” and calls on the UK to increase this commitment at the next N4G Summit in 2024.

Looking ahead, partners are engaging around World TB Day, using deep advocacy to raise awareness and political will to end this leading­­—and preventable—infectious disease. Together, we can #EndTB and save lives!

In solidarity,

Vineeta

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


Advocacy Updates:

  • RESULTS UK is following up on the N4G summit with a pivot to accountability. They supported nutrition champion Lord Collins to table an Oral Question on the OECD-DAC policy marker in the House of Lords on February 21, working with Lord Collins to craft the question and producing a briefing on the UK’s N4G commitment, the policy marker, and current state of nutrition. Lord Collins’ question was supplemented by other peers asking how the £1.5 billion commitment would be spent. Through these questions, nutrition advocates learned that the marker would be implemented later in 2022 and that information on nutrition spending for 2022–2025 would be released with the International Development Strategy in the spring.
  • Global Health Advocates (GHA) France worked in advance of the EU-AU Summit to influence the agenda and outcome of the event, which GHA saw as an opportunity for European leaders to work towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic and persisting epidemics like tuberculosis and other diseases as well as the scourge of malnutrition. GHA developed a policy brief with the Generation Nutrition coalition, laying out key recommendations for consideration by European Commission policymakers and civil servants. Civil society calls on policymakers to prioritize nutrition as a key lever of sustainable development, in line with existing priorities of the African Union; themes included eradicating hunger in all forms, transformation of food systems, prevention and treatment of malnutrition, and meaningful inclusion of civil society. In addition, GHA published joint civil society reaction to the EU-AU Summit that welcomes the Global Gateway package but stresses the lack of transparency around where the money will come from and how much of it is new versus repackaged resources.
  • Allan Ragi, executive director of KANCO, led a delegation of Kenyan CSOs to meet with Dr. Rashid Aman, chief administrative secretary of the Ministry of Health, to discuss the ratification of African Medicines Agency (AMA) Treaty. The AMA would allow for improved access to newer, safer medicines in Africa, but Kenya is one of 27 African states that have not yet ratified the treaty document. Despite growing support for AMA, it will need more time, money, and, most importantly, more signatories from Africa’s strong nations, like Kenya, to ensure that the new AMA body can meet its purpose of ensuring access to safer, newer, and higher quality medications across the continent.
  • Partners GHA and WACI Health produced a video for the Global Fund’s investment case launch for the 7th replenishment. Partners called on the EU to do #WhateverItTakes to protect everyone, everywhere from the deadliest infectious diseases and support the Global Fund.
  • In support of the 7th Global Fund replenishment, Health Promotion Tanzania (HDT) launched a month-long social media campaign aimed at calling upon funders to honor their previous pledges and recommit to the Global Fund in the name of global solidarity.
  • KANCO and Results Canada convened members of parliament (MPs) from Kenya and Canada at their MP #PandemicProofTheWorld event to discuss ending pandemics and the Global Fund’s impact in fighting epidemics. Local “health heroes” took them on a virtual delegation tour through affected communities, and MPs heard directly from Kenyan MPs, healthcare workers, experts, and survivors. 
  • RESULTS UK, Results Canada, and Stop TB Canada signed onto two letters written by the TB Vax ARM ahead of the 6th Global Forum on TB Vaccines seeking the renewed commitment of the French government, the European Union, and the governments of EU member states to help deliver a fully funded TB vaccine pipeline by 2023. The letters were addressed to French President Macron and the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Health. At the time of sending, the letter was endorsed by 91 organizations and over 50 individuals.
  • WACI Health led the GFF We Want coalition in a Valentine’s Day Campaign aimed to garner donor support for the GFF Resource Mobilization Campaign. This was followed by a letter to governments and representatives from the U.S., France, and Germany from the Civil Society Coordinating Group and Investor Group. The social media campaign gained traction and was recognized on a call by the GFF Secretariat as having attracted attention in conversations with various donors.
  • ACTION partners worked hard to galvanize donors in support of the CEPI replenishment that took place earlier this week in a Summit hosted by the UK. Our partner Focus Equality worked with the Italian Parliament on a motion with ONE Campaign for a global ask on health that would include funding for CEPI, COVAX, and the Global Fund. RESULTS UK hosted a conversation with civil servants aiming to get as many champions for pledging as possible. They wrote an op-ed on CEPI with Philippa Whitford (Scottish MP) and are playing a key role in coalition response to the UK’s pledge announcement last week. The Secretariat pushed key messaging on social media to make a final push ahead of the replenishment and will now shift focus on post-Summit follow-up. By day’s end on March 8, the global community pledged US$1.54 billion to CEPI to kick-start their #100DaysMission to tackle epidemics and pandemics to save millions of lives.
  • WACI Health helped organize a parliamentary brief to update MPs on the Global Fund 7th Replenishment preparatory meeting. MPs from Kenya, DRC, Rwanda, and Senegal published a joint op-ed in support of the Global Fund replenishment campaign.
  • On March 4, ACTION co-hosted an event titled Cape to Cairo to Capitol Hill to pass the Global Fund torch across the Atlantic, where the U.S. White House will host the next donor pledging summit for the Global Fund. Advocates called on the U.S. and other donors to do their part, investing at least US$18 billion to put the Global Fund partnership’s plan into action. The event was co-hosted with RESULTS Educational Fund; GFAN Africa; WACI Health; Impact Santé Afrique; and Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria.

News:  

  • “Fighting Taliban and Mistrust, Pakistan Marks One Year Polio-Free” from VOA. Pakistan marks one year without a wild polio case (as of 18 January 2022), down from 84 cases in 2020 and 147 in 2019. The country has a tremendous opportunity to stop transmission of the wild virus for good.
  • “Malawi polio case raises concerns the virus could reemerge in region” from STAT. The case involves a child who was not fully vaccinated against polio and a strain of polio circulating in Pakistan. The government of Malawi has declared the outbreak a public health emergency.
  • “Eight polio vaccinators killed in series of Afghan attacks: UN” from France24. This has put on hold in Kunduz and Takhar provinces Afghanistan’s national polio vaccination campaign, which began on February 21.
  • The World Bank Spring Meetings will take place the week of April 18, 2022, and feature 4 high-level flagship events, with one of themes being Human Capital. Registration for Civil Society is currently open through March 28, so make sure to register if you’re interested in participating!

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