A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear colleagues and co-conspirators,
I am excited to share many important updates from the partnership! April was a busy month for all filled with global advocacy days, resource mobilization moments, and strategic meetings.
April started with World Health Day on the 7th. Partners engaged around this moment to highlight their Global Fund advocacy and the importance of saving lives by ensuring equitable access to health services. See the Twitter moment here. During World Immunization Week, the global health community garnered around World Malaria Day to emphasize the urgent need to expand access to existing vaccines.
If polio eradication is a marathon — the vaccine was first introduced in 1954 — then the finish line is in sight in 2022, but this is the hardest part of the race. The places where polio still circulates are the hardest to reach and require the greatest care in implementing vaccine campaigns. But the end is in sight, and the investment case recently released by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative shows that the price tag to eradicate polio, US$4.8 billion for the next five years, is much less than if we don’t: “needless paralysis and death and an open-ended need for billions of dollars in additional costs.” Moreover, the lessons learned in polio surveillance, preparedness and response, and accountability and oversight strengthen health systems.
The Secretariat team partnered with RESULTS UK to host an incredible bipartisan MP delegation to Washington, DC. The delegation engaged with global health leaders and other key international development and global health institutions such as the World Bank, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Global Financing Facility, and the Gates Foundation. Parliamentarians discussed the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for women and children, and collaborated with leadership at these institutions to catalyze a more effective and equitable response. Stay tuned for our upcoming blog!
ACTION partners and the Secretariat team engaged in deep advocacy around the GFF’s #ReclaimTheGains event on April 22 to protect women and children and ensure they have access to health services by way of funding the GFF. Our advocacy work around the GFF will continue across the partnership, especially as we gear up for the pledging event this fall.
Check out our current job openings at the Secretariat here and don’t forget to engage with us on social media!
In solidarity,
Vineeta
Vineeta Gupta, MD, JD, LL.M
Director, ACTION Secretariat
Advocacy Updates:
- See how the ACTION partnership celebrated World Immunization Week here.
- GHA France worked with Friends of the Global Fund and other CSOs to publish an op-ed on World Malaria Day in Le Monde, a French newspaper of record with a daily circulation of more than 440,000. Signed by 25 CSOs, the op-ed calls on President Emmanuel Macron to increase the French contribution to the Global Fund. Its title highlights the threat that every minute, a child under the age of 5 dies of malaria worldwide.
- The ACTION partnership celebrated the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) investment case on April 26 for its US$4.8 billion resource mobilization campaign, and Germany announced they would host the pledging event at the World Health Summit in Berlin this October. The ACTION partnership live-tweeted the event across numerous accounts and helped amplify the message of #LongLifeForAll throughout World Immunization Week. GHA France published an article the day of the GPEI investment case launch to draw attention on the dangers of the disruption of routine immunizations and the most recent polio outbreaks. RESULTS UK organized and co-hosted three webinars in April and May with Gavi and others looking at the status of routine immunization services amidst the COVID-19 pandemic; the final webinar in the 3-part series, “Immunization Financing and Accountability,” was held on May 12.
- ACTION partners and the Secretariat attended a planning meeting of the Resource Mobilization Group focused on creating a joint workplan and agreeing on priority actions to achieve the bold resource mobilization goals in the months leading up to the GPEI pledging event in October.
- The ACTION Secretariat supported RESULTS UK in bringing a cross-party delegation of 5 Members of Parliament to Washington, DC, to participate in a set of strategic meetings and events aimed at engaging global health leaders and other key international development and global health institutions such as the World Bank, the U.S. State Department, the Global Financing Facility, the Gates Foundation, and others. During their 5-day trip, MPs met with Ambassador Karen Pierce, British ambassador to the U.S.; Richard Montgomery, executive director of the World Bank for the UK; Sheila Redzepi, VP of external affairs at the World Bank; as well as the Parliamentarian Network of the World Bank and IMF and representatives from PEPFAR. The MPs spoke at an event hosted by Search for Common Ground, met with Ministers of Health for Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone, toured the U.S. Capitol, and attended the GFF Resource Mobilization event. This trip was an opportunity for these MPs to discuss the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for women and children, and collaborate with leadership at these institutions to catalyze a more effective and equitable response from the UK.
- The GFF #ReclaimTheGains resource mobilization event, Don’t let COVID-19 turn back progress on the health of women, children and adolescents, took place on April 22. Hosted by the Canadian Embassy, the event was attended by the UK MP delegation and staff from RESULTS UK, RESULTS Educational Fund (REF), and the ACTION Secretariat. The event featured Solange Kone, executive director of ACTION partner ASAPSU, by pre-recorded video, and Joanne Carter, executive director of REF and chair of the ACTION partnership, spoke on the panel about the need for the world to focus on issues that remain underfunded while also responding to COVID-19. “We cannot be forced to decide between core, women’s, children’s, and adolescent health services and fighting COVID. That is a false choice because we need to do both,” said Joanne. She emphasized that investments in health equity and RMNCAH+N can help us deliver on PHC. Several ACTION partners worked in the weeks leading up the event to secure additional pledges that were announced at the event including from the governments of Canada, Japan, and the UK. See partners’ social media engagement here.
- Several ACTION Partners participated in the Civil Society Roundtable with the World Bank Group Board of Executive Directors on Wednesday, April 27. The virtual roundtable moderated by Shameran Abed, Executive Director of BRAC International, is part of the CSPF and is a space for CSOs to interact with these principals on critical development issues. Selected and answered live were two questions posed by GHA France and the Secretariat on what efforts the Bank is taking to deploy vaccine financing and the need for the Bank to increase its work on Pandemic Preparedness and Response in a more efficient and equitable way.
- HDT hosted an event “National Dissemination of the GFF Case Study: The Case of Mwanza and Kigoma” as the civil society secretariat for the coordinating group of the GFF in Tanzania. Tanzania has been implementing the GFF for 6 years and worked with the Ministry of Health to develop a video documentary on the GFF’s added value in the case of Mwanza and Kigoma. The video was disseminated widely at the national level.
- Results Canda developed a technical note to understand how the GFF was crowding-in additional IDA funding for SRHR. Overall, funding for SRHR across the 18 countries increased from US$106.03 million to US$115.56 million, representing a 9% increase. Given that 2020 OECD data is not complete as not all aid spending had been reported as of March 30, 2022, it could mean that the crowding-in effect of the GFF is possibly underestimated in this analysis.
- After working to secure Australia’s investment of $100 million for CEPI in coalition with other CSOs, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent a letter to RESULTS Australia thanking them for their work in supporting the global COVID-19 response.
- RESULTS UK worked with the Bureau of Investigative Journalists and The Independent to publish an article, continuing their investigation into the UK charging COVID-19 vaccines to the ODA budget. This aimed to raise awareness of the decision and pressure the government over how they price the 2022 doses. RESULTS UK also engaged parliamentarians, including placing two parliamentary questions from Caroline Lucas and Wendy Chamberlain and a letter from Layla Moran.
- ASAPSU participated in a meeting with the Ministry of Health’s Director of Community Health to discuss the community-led monitoring (CLM) on HIV and TB to get the Ministry to support the implementation of the CLM.
- GHA EU published two blogs: one on World Health Day with Naomi Wanjiru, a nurse working on HIV and TB and a member of GFAN and one with Shreehari Acharya, Project Manager at ALIGHT Malaria Free Mekong project. Naomi’s interview is the second testimony of a blog series focused on the crucial role of the Global Fund. Her interview highlights the importance of community health systems that contribute to breaking down human rights and gender related barriers and address health inequalities. Shreehari’s interview helped GHA push the need to fund communities and local CSOs like the Global Fund is doing, especially since COVID-19 stepped back the progress made in the last 10 years.
- Along with other CSOs, GHA EU organized an informal webinar with actors from civil society and think tanks to gather inputs around the Global Health Strategy, find new allies to endorse its renewal, and support next steps for advocacy.
- Alongside CSOs like Results US, ONE, Friends of the Global Fight, Friends of the Global Fund Europe, Aidsfonds, GHA sent a letter to the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources of the National Security Council to focus on the U.S. diplomatic engagement with Europe ahead of the Seventh Replenishment of the Global Fund.
- WACI Health and Africa Free of new HIV infections (AfNHi) developed an advocacy resource for HIV prevention advocates in the form of a pocket guide on research ethics in Africa. The virtual launch was held on April 13th with HIV prevention advocates and ethics experts from Uganda, Botswana, and South Africa.
- On April 25th, WACI Health and GFAN Africa Hosted the Global Fund mission in Kenya. The mission visit was with the Kenya Coordinating mechanism and civil society leaders to discuss country plans towards the replenishment and to debrief civil society on the GF investment case.
- RESULTS UK held an April grassroots action and conference call asking advocates to arrange to visit their MP face-to-face or virtually to promote the Global Fund, including the need to deal with the reversal of progress against TB caused by COVID-19. One volunteer met with an MP and additional actions are expected to continue through May and June.
- RESULTS UK met with the UK Civil Society Working Group and members of the FCDO Global Fund team to discuss civil society’s ask of the UK’s replenishment pledge, and for the first time shared the UK ask with civil servants.
- On March 30th,Results Australia liaised with the Australian TB Caucus co-chairs who agreed to propose a motion drawing attention to World TB Day. Results was responsible for drafting the motion calling on the government to increase its financial contribution to the Global Fund. The TB Caucus Co-Chairs have agreed to update and revisit the motion following the elections.
News:
- NCD Alliance welcomes new Presidential Council on Noncommunicable Diseases and Global Compact on NCDs. Investing US$18 billion between 2023 and 2030 could save 39 million lives and generate a net economic benefit of US$2.7 trillion – equal to a 19:1 return on investment.
- Devex spoke with Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, on creating momentum to boost global TB efforts. Watch the video here.
- At the 2022 Spring Meetings, the World Bank President proposed a package that encompasses a 15-month surge of $170 billion financing available for affected countries, of which $50 billion could be committed in the next 3 months. Read more.
- Results Canada welcomes international assistance increase in new budget.
Resources and Blogs:
- Healthy Planet, Healthy People: Nutrition, Climate Change and Indigenous Food Networks RESULTS UK
- Immunization, health and poverty: a look at our vaccine-related advocacy by RUK
- It’s World Immunisation Week, Let’s Talk About Vaccines by Sarah Meredith and Negaya Chorley
- Results Canada’s May Call to Action
- Funding communities and supporting them is crucial because they are the ones dealing with malaria on a day-to-day basis by GHA EU
- It is our responsibility now to ask the leaders to continue investing to address health inequalities and human rights violations and anything that will affect our health by GHA EU
- « Chaque minute, un enfant de moins de 5 ans meurt du paludisme dans le monde » by GHA Paris
- We must take into account the needs raised by community health workers and civil society partners rather than imposing our ideas by GHA Paris
Events and Opportunities:
- The ACTION Secretariat is hiring!
- 24 May – 1 June: Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly
- June 4–5: RESULTS International Conference
- July 29 – August 2: 24th International AIDS Conference
- October 16-18: World Health Summit (Berlin) and Polio Pledging Event. Learn more.
