Civil Society Communique on the Global Financing Facility
By The Global Civil Society Coordinating Group for the GFF
November 2018
As a global network of civil society organizations engaging in the GFF across 27 countries, and at regional and global levels, we come together to spport the GFF as an innovative financing and partnership model for contributing to realizing all women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ right to good quality healthcare and nutrition.
Civil society has been recognized by the GFF as a critical stakeholder in planning, implementation, resource mobilization, monitoring and accountability. The engagement of civil society in the GFF at global and country levels to-date has generated important results, including enhanced investment cases, improved multi-stakeholder coordination, and enhanced accountability. It has also yielded key lessons that we can utilize to continue strengthening GFF processes and results.
We are at a turning point in the landscape of global health. The global community is working together to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and renewing commitment to find new solutions for breaking down silos and working across sectors to achieve health and wellbeing for all by 2030, as articulated by the Global Plan for Action for Health and Wellbeing.
Seizing this opportunity requires us to be more innovative in leveraging diverse sources of financing, including increasing the amount and efficiency of domestic spending on health and nutrition; and which requires effective coordination among all stakeholder groups to improve the systems that are essential to advancing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition. We see the GFF as an important vehicle for contributing towards this important objective.
Therefore, we call on governments, the GFF Secretariat, Investors Group, donors, and other GFF Stakeholders to recognize civil society’s critical roles in enhancing GFF processes and outcomes. Civil society’s roles and contributions also emphasize the priority areas where we expect the GFF to continue to improve its processes and policies to yield better results, and achieve the GFF we want, including:
● Facilitate greater participation of people and communities in design, implementation, and monitoring of the GFF
● Ensure inclusive and transparent processes aligned with the vision, structures, and minimum standards outlined in the GFF Business Plan, GFF Civil Society Engagement Strategy and Implementation Plan, and Guidance Note on Inclusive Multi-stakeholder Country Platforms in support of Every Woman Every Child
● Enhance GFF planning by providing technical assistance to multi-stakeholder country platforms for the development of country investment cases and health financing strategies
● Support GFF implementation by generating demand and ensuring that essential services and supplies reach the poorest, most vulnerable, and hardest to reach, as well as supporting the identification, monitoring, and evaluation of high impact low cost, equitable interventions at country level
● Enhance communication about the GFF and foster opportunities for regular consultation with a wide range of partners, including local CSOs, youth, communities, local governments, private sector, health care professional associations, etc.
● Advocate for the mobilization of sustainable and innovative, progressive and fair domestic resources with Ministries of Finance, parliamentarians, local authorities, congressional representatives, governors, and other decision-makers
● Contribute to a multisectoral approach to health; and support improved partnership and coordination with stakeholders across sectors, including engaging with other global movements such as UHC2030, Gavi, Global Fund, FP2020, SUN[1] and more at local, national, regional, and global levels to enhance alignment and efficiency, and to reduce duplicated efforts
● Hold leaders accountable, as an independent voice in ensuring that: resources are allocated, disbursed, and used effectively to respond to the needs of affected populations; countries’ indebtedness does not increase; and private-sector engagement is monitored closely to ensure equity.
In order to fully realize the role of civil society in supporting and advancing the GFF, we ask that:
1) Donors to the GFF, Investors Group, and Trust Fund Committee:
o Provide adequate resources for civil society to fully implement the GFF CS Engagement Strategy and Implementation Plan, and roles outlined above
2) Governments in GFF Countries and the GFF Secretariat:
o Ensure transparency of information and decision-making at all levels of GFF processes
o Ensure meaningful inclusion and representation of civil society, youth, and affected populations in GFF platforms.
We commit to continuing our efforts to engage in the planning, coordination of local and global initiatives, implementation, and monitoring of the GFF in a transparent manner, that meaningfully represents a broad constituency of CSOs, young people, and communities; and that fully leverages the unique value add of civil society to enhance the GFF, hold country and global leaders to account, and ensure that it is used as a mechanism to effectively reach all women, children, and adolescents, including the poorest and most vulnerable, with quality services and supplies.
With strong, strategic engagement of civil society — and all stakeholders — the GFF can provide a unique opportunity to transform how these countries prioritize and finance the health and nutrition of their citizens with a focus on women, children, and adolescents.
Signed,
The Global Civil Society Coordinating Group for the GFF
The goal of the Civil Society Coordinating Group for the GFF is to improve the health outcomes of women, children, and adolescents by ensuring civil society’s meaningful engagement in GFF processes at country and global levels. Civil society is meaningfully engaged in the GFF when the full breadth of their skills and expertise can contribute to determining and achieving mutual goals and targets, including those laid out by the GFF and GFF countries, the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
[1] Universal Health Coverage 2030; Gavi the Vaccine Alliance; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria; Family Planning 2020; and Scaling up Nutrition
[2] United Nations. Civil Society. Accessed 10 October 2016.
Civil society includes the full range of formal and informal, non-governmental and not-for-profit, organizations that publicly represent the interests, ideas and values of citizens and their members.[2] Civil society organizations (CSOs) encompass a diverse range of groups, such as: international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), regional and national advocacy groups, service-delivery organizations, community-based organizations (CBOs), youth-led coalitions, professional associations, faith-based groups and service-providers, indigenous groups, charitable organizations, research and academic institutions, and more.
