Nearly 5 million children die each year—9 every minute. Every day, around 700 women die from pregnancy-related causes, 90 percent of them in low- and middle-income countries. Most of these deaths are preventable.

Closing that gap is central to the World Bank Group's ambition to reach 1.5 billion people with health services by 2030. That goal cannot be achieved without a clear focus on the populations most at risk: women, children, and adolescents in the world's poorest countries. 

That is why during the recent World Bank Group–IMF Spring Meetings, it was encouraging to see so many leaders from partner country governments, sovereign donors, philanthropies, the private sector, and civil society come together to reaffirm their support for the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF). Together, they committed more than $800 million on day one of the 2026–2030 investment round in support of maternal and child health.

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