The Civil Society GFF Resource and Engagement Hub: Progress Report
Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents
In 2014, the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) was announced, targeting countries with the highest burden of maternal and child mortality. The aim of the funding is to ensure targeted efforts toward interventions that will reduce preventable maternal, newborn, child and adolescent deaths and improve their overall health, leading to a better quality of life. Kenya is among the four initial front-runner countries. Kenya’s reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH+N) investment framework was completed in January 2016. The framework development process was consultative and inclusive, bringing together a diverse range of stakeholders, including civil society. Implementation of the framework started in fiscal year 2016/17.
This case study was commissioned by PAI on behalf of the Civil Society GFF Resource and Engagement Hub (CSO GFF Hub) and civil society members represented by the Health NGO Network (HENNET) in Kenya. It reviews and captures the progress made in ensuring domestic and external resources are mobilized for RMNCAH+N interventions; how the process has catalyzed prioritization of RMNCAH+N within decentralized systems; improvements in the health indicators; engagement and coordination of all the actors including civil society and other stakeholders; and enhancement of mutual accountability across all the actors.
Key takeaways
Through HENNET, civil society played a key role in highlighting some of the GFF partnership challenges and strengthening understanding of the partnership approach within the government and across stakeholders.
The conditional granting mechanism and PBF approach that is used in Kenya’s GFF partnership has played a significant role in increasing county-level domestic and external resources for health as well as overall country financing for health.
The design of the PBF approach was reviewed at various stages to ensure it responds to the emerging issues and challenges at the county level. For instance, the resource flow challenges that were experienced were addressed using the new public financial management (PFM) criteria. Civil society’s subnational-level work and engagement with county departments of health contributed to the identification of these PFM challenges.
Working with MoH leadership, the Kenyan government and World Bank, civil society — represented by HENNET — played a key role in ensuring the formation and launch of the RMNCAH+N MCP. Sustaining and ensuring the platform responds to its coordinating role and needs of the various actors will be critical in its success.
Utilization of the GFF partnership resources in mitigating the FP commodity gap enabled community access to FP services. However, the long-term sustainability of FP commodity security, as well as RMNCAH+N intervention efforts, will need to be addressed as the GFF partnership comes to an end.
