To read the full article, click here.

Photo © USAID in Africa

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Today, less than 40% of eligible Ghanaians have received at least one COVID-19 shot, compared to nearly 70% globally. The new tablets — alongside key investments from the Ghanaian government and other funders — are helping advance the Ministry of Health’s commitments to vaccinate 18.2 million people against Covid-19 by the end of 2023 and increase GHS’ use of electronic health (e-health) information technology to deliver health services. In addition to digital devices, the United States has donated more than 12 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to support GHS’s national immunization efforts.

“Ghanaian health workers are the country’s first line of defense against any emerging health threat,” said Linda Vanotoo, senior program director of Community and Primary Health Workforce at Results for Development. “The devices will help them expand data collection to rural and remote areas, improving availability of data for planning and minimizing administrative burden for health workers.”

Read the full press release on how the new tablets are helping the Ghana Heath Service capture immunization date and expand digitization of Ghana’s health system.

The post The Rockefeller Foundation: Supporting Ghana Health Service’s National COVID-19 Campaign appeared first on Results for Development.

Abstract: Rehabilitative care is often overlooked and underfunded despite being a key component of universal health coverage, and now faces further neglect due to indirect impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Policy-makers can leverage strategic purchasing approaches to make the most of available funds and maximize health gains. To implement more strategic purchasing of rehabilitation, health planners must: (i) develop and prioritize evidence-based rehabilitation service packages; (ii) use fit-for-purpose contracting and provider payment mechanisms to incentivize quality and efficient service delivery; and (iii) strengthen stewardship. This paper examines these three policy priorities by analysing their associated processes, actors and resources based on country experiences. Policy-makers will likely face several obstacles in operationalizing these policy priorities, including: inadequate accountability and coordination among sectors; limited data and research; undefined and non-standardized rehabilitation services, costs and outcomes; and inadequate availability of rehabilitative care. To overcome challenges and institute optimal strategic purchasing practices for rehabilitation, we recommend that policy-makers strengthen health sector stewardship and establish a framework for multisectoral collaboration, invest in data and research and make use of available experience from high-income settings, while creating a body of evidence from low- and middle-income settings.

To read the full article, click here.

Photo © Alex Kamweru/USAID

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Related Resource: Tracking aid for the WHA nutrition targets

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Results for Development (R4D) today released a report showing that despite the overall increase in global aid for high-impact nutrition interventions, a significant financing gap to meet the World Health Assembly (WHA) targets by 2025 remains. This is especially troubling given the spike in malnutrition caused by global crises, including the COVID pandemic, conflict and the global economic slowdown.

The report, Tracking aid for the WHA nutrition targets: Progress toward the global nutrition goals between 2015-2020, is the first look at trends in nutrition aid since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. In particular, financing for stunting, exclusive breastfeeding, and anemia have either decreased or plateaued.

The report also includes these key messages for the global nutrition community:

• Donor funding for priority nutrition interventions increased from $1.1 billion in 2015 to $1.6 billion in 2020, but we are still not achieving the scale-up needed to achieve the global nutrition goals.
• Donor funding for stunting and exclusive breastfeeding targets have plateaued, while disbursements to anemia have decreased.
• Donor funding for wasting treatment has increased significantly; however, there is still a large gap and much of this funding (59%) is via humanitarian channels that are less conducive to sustainable change.
• Donor disbursements to above-service delivery investments (such as funding for coordination, governance, advocacy, capacity building, and research and data) also increased significantly, which are important investments in support of programmatic scale-up.
• Major donors have increased or maintained funding for priority interventions since 2015.

“While the child malnutrition crisis is devastating, the recently announced $280 million to child malnutrition — on top of $250M committed in July — gives us hope,” said Albertha Nyaku, R4D’s nutrition practice lead. “With it comes opportunity to help children in immediate need and to strengthen services for the future while governments and donors continue to accelerate these commitments to achieving global nutrition goals.”

In 2017, the World Bank, R4D, and 1000 Days created the Investment Framework for Nutrition as a roadmap toward achieving the World Health Assembly (WHA) nutrition targets by 2025. The framework estimates that the world needs to mobilize an annual additional investment of $7 billion per year to scale-up nutrition-specific interventions at the level needed to achieve the global targets, where, of these costs, $2.3 billion per year is needed for a priority package of ready-to-scale interventions.

Since then, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, R4D has been tracking donor disbursements to priority interventions needed to achieve the WHA nutrition targets to monitor progress toward the financial benchmarks laid out in the Investment Framework.

Click here to view the full report and archive of previous nutrition financing analyses.

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About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — supporting them as they navigate complex change processes to achieve large-scale, equitable outcomes in health, education and nutrition. We work with country leaders to diagnose challenges, co-create, innovate and implement solutions built on evidence and diverse stakeholder input, and engage in learning to adapt, iterate and improve. We also strengthen global, regional and country ecosystems to support country leaders with expertise, evidence, and innovations. R4D helps country leaders solve their immediate challenges today, while also strengthening systems and institutions to address tomorrow’s challenges. And we share what we learn so others around the world can achieve results for development too. www.R4D.org

Photo © Mwangi Kirubi/USAID Regional

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On February 8, 2022,  the JLN and the Accelerator hosted a final webinar to:  

• Articulate key actions countries and partners will need to take to improve coordination of the COVID-19 response as we enter the third year of the global pandemic 
• Highlight the key lessons and promising practices identified through the Collaborative’s work over the past year 
• Reflect on the impact and value of the Collaborative to improve national responses to pandemics   

The webinar included a moderated dialogue on the best practices for an effective national response to pandemics in low- and middle-income countries.  

Opening Remarks  

• Professor Samba Sow, World Health Organization Special Envoy for COVID-19 and Director General of the Center for Vaccine Development in Mali 

Moderators 

• Professor Raquel Duarte of the University of Porto in Portugal 
• Professor John Ryu of Yonsei University in South Korea 

Panelists 

• Dr. Beza Aseffa – Ministry of Health, Ethiopia 
• Dr. Kwame Amponsa-Achiano – Ghana Health Service, Ghana  
• Ms. Meboh Abuor – Council of Governors, Kenya 
• Mr. Steven N Kabwama – Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda 

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