Improving Health Financing to Accelerate Progress Towards Universal Health Coverage

Key Messages

• Since the inception of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children, and Adolescents (GFF), supporting health financing reforms to achieve universal health coverage has been a critical part of the GFF value proposition. The domestic resource utilization and mobilization (DRUM) window, approved by the Trust Fund Committee (TFC) in 2019, is intended to intensify GFF support for health financing reforms in GFF-supported countries and align this support with the updated GFF Strategy.
• The key pillars of the DRUM window include: 1) leveraging IDA funding for health financing reforms; 2) supporting health financing technical assistance and analytics to inform IDA lending and strengthen reform design and implementation at the country level; 3) enhancing planning, budgeting and execution. and transparency through resource mapping and expenditure tracking; 4) mobilizing the World Bank’s public sector governance and public financial management expertise for GFF-supported countries; and 5) increasing global, regional, and local-level advocacy efforts for more and more efficiently-used resources for health.
• Since its launch in late 2019, the DRUM window has enabled the GFF to strengthen the health financing support it provides to countries through:
  • Diversifying ways in which World Bank/IDA is leveraged for health financing by increasing the proportion of GFF co-financed projects that support essential health financing reforms (e.g., public financial management, pooling and insurance schemes, financial protection programs) and supporting the preparation of development policy operations (DPOs) to promote health financing reforms.
  • Supporting an ambitious, multi-year analytical and technical assistance agenda to help GFF-supported countries increase the efficiency of resource use, improve public financial management, and strengthen donor alignment.
  • Expanding support for resource mapping and expenditure tracking.
  • Strengthening in-country civil society engagement, including strengthening the capacity of women-led organizations to engage in advocacy to increase domestic resources for health.
• In addition to expanding its work in the areas outlined above, going forward the GFF will focus on health financing policies and reforms as tools for improving equity in access to health services, especially in primary health care (PHC).