GF/B21/DP20
Approved by the Board on: 30 April 2010
Exploring Options for Optimizing Synergies with Maternal and Child Health
The Global Fund Board recognizes that the health-related Millennium Development Goals are interlinked. Achieving MDG 6 (combating HIV, malaria and TB and other diseases), MDG 4 (reducing child mortality) and MDG 5 (improving maternal health) can only be approached in an integrated manner and the success of one MDG depends on progress on all others.
The Board acknowledges that HIV, tuberculosis and malaria place a heavy burden on the health of women and children. In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV is responsible for 46 per cent of all deaths among women of reproductive age. HIV, TB and malaria are among the most common indirect causes of maternal deaths. All three diseases heavily impact on the health of children: Children account for more than 80 per cent of malaria, and over 2 million children are living with HIV, 90 per cent of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Board notes the efforts of a broad range of partners who are working to accelerate action and to scale up integrated services, and especially applauds the efforts of MCH advocates, who have been tireless in their efforts to improve the health and save the lives of women and children.
The Board is encouraged by the contributions of the Global Fund in financing country-led programs that improve maternal and child health, including scaling up PMTCT services, malaria prevention and treatment, anti-retroviral therapy, integration of sexual and reproductive health services with HIV/AIDS programmes and support for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The Global Fund investments are also strengthening health and community systems, and supporting a range of interventions to promote gender equality and equity, as articulated in the Gender Equality Strategy (Decision Point GF/B18/DP18).
The Board supports the efforts of countries to integrate MCH within their HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria programmes, and strongly encourages CCMs to look at opportunities to scale up an integrated health response that includes MCH in their applications for HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and HSS.
However, the Board notes that despite support for integrated MCH services through the current Global Fund portfolio, some areas along the continuum of care in maternal and child health will not be addressed by 2015. These areas, as outlined in the Consensus for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, include comprehensive family planning, skilled care for women and newborns during and after pregnancy and childbirth.
The Board encourages countries and partners, as a matter of urgency, to work together in the context of opportunities presented through grant reprogramming, Round 10, and changes to the Global Fund grant architecture to urgently scale up investments in MCH in the context of the Global Fund's core mandate.
The Board strongly encourages CCMs to identify opportunities to scale up an integrated health response that includes MCH in their applications for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and HSS.
The Board agrees to work with partners in exploring ways to further enhance and integrate the Global Fund's contributions in this area within the context of national strategies and integrated approaches.
The Board requests the Secretariat to review and elaborate the potential options and their implications for enhancing the contributions of the Global Fund to MCH, recognizing the urgent need for additional and sufficient financing for MCH as well as for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and exploring how this will impact on existing Global Fund policies, partnerships, resource mobilization, procedures, and operations, including CCMs, TRP and staffing at the Secretariat. The Board further requests the Secretariat to report on this matter at the 14th Policy and Strategy Committee meeting for its recommendation to the Twenty-Second Board Meeting.