African civil society calls for unified resource mobilization for health
In a landmark event, nine major global health organizations joined representatives of African civil society platforms on 19 and 20 February in a meeting - More money for health, more health for the money - at the offices of the GAVI Alliance. At a lunchtime session, Seth Berkley, CEO of GAVI; Lucica Ditiu, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership; Philippe Duneton, Deputy Executive Director of UNITAID; Luiz Loures, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS; Linda Mafu, Head, Political and Civil Society Department at the Global Fund; and Thomas Teuscher, Deputy Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership agreed with the assembled civil society organizations on a common objective: joint efforts for domestic resource mobilization for health in Africa must be harmonized.
The leaders of these global health partnerships highlighted the importance of speaking with one voice for a unified approach to achieving better health in Africa. Representatives of African civil society health platforms called for an end to fragmented action by agencies working on one specific disease or health issue.
African civil society agreed to:
- map what is needed and what is already present at country and regional levels
- articulate the value added and mandate of this health initiative toward civil society coordination.
The assembled global health partnerships agreed to:
- share mapping/analysis of partners they work with in Africa on health and start harmonizing efforts
- provide technical support to improve Africa civil society tools to be able to advocate more effectively for domestic resource mobilization for health
- speak in one voice - speak the same language.
There was also overall agreement to develop a draft mechanism to drive this initiative forward and produce a best practice document on how national civil society health platforms function.
Civil society participation at the meeting was supported by the six global health partnerships whose leaders spoke at the lunchtime session; IHP+; the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health and the World Bank.
Source: Stop TB Partnership
