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Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
ZIMBABWE has received US$25 million in donor funding to prevent maternal deaths and reduce child mortality by 2030.
The Global Financing Facility (GFF) funding will be channelled towards reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health issues in the next three years.
The GFF supports government-led, multi-stakeholder platforms to develop and implement a national, prioritised health plan that aims to help mobilise sustainable financing for health and nutrition.
GFF donors include the governments of Canada, Norway, and the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Susan T, Buffet Foundation, Laerdal Global Health and MSD for Mothers.
In a statement yesterday, the Health and Child Care Ministry said:
“Zimbabwe was accepted a beneficiary of GFF funding in May 2019 and will receive US$25 million over a 3-year period to help catalyse and drive the financial innovations to attain a grand convergence in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) by 2030.
“The overall goal of the GFF will be to contribute to the global efforts to end preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths and improve the health and quality of life of women, adolescents and children. It is estimated that compared with current trends, an accelerated investment scenario would help prevent a total of 4 million maternal deaths.”
The country’s maternal mortality rate remains at 640 per 100 000 births according to the latest Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey which ranks it number five in the world. In 2018, the infant mortality rate for Zimbabwe was 33,9 deaths per 1,000 live births.—@thamamo
Bongani Ndlovu