New commitments mark a strong start — with more than 80 percent raised towards the 2026 goal
 

WASHINGTON, DC | APRIL 16, 2026 — The Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) announced today — on the sidelines of the World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings — new funding commitments from governments and philanthropic partners totaling USD 806 million in support of its TRANSFORM 2030 strategy, a five-year plan to accelerate progress towards ending preventable maternal and child deaths in countries with the highest burden. 

These pledges mark the beginning of the GFF’s new investment round, and come at a decisive moment with the tools, evidence and partnerships in place to accelerate progress, even as hard-won gains face increasing risks from multiple shocks. 

Hosted by the World Bank Group (WBG), the GFF is a country-led partnership that helps scale proven health and nutrition solutions through national health systems to reach hundreds of millions of women, children, and adolescents with lifesaving care.  

Through 2026–2030, the GFF intends to expand its operations from 36 to 50 countries with the highest maternal and child mortality, and is projected to leverage USD 12.5 billion in WBG financing, USD 17.8 billion in partner resources, and USD 21.4 billion in domestic resources to scale high-impact health interventions.1 These efforts will contribute to the WBG’s goal of reaching 1.5 billion people with quality, affordable health services by 2030. 

Mamta Murthi, Vice President, People, World Bank Group, and Chair, GFF Trust Fund Committee: “The case is clear: investing in women, children and adolescents builds human capital, reduces poverty, and creates jobs and lasting prosperity. With its new strategy, a fully funded GFF will help partner countries to deliver lifesaving care to hundreds of millions of people twice as fast. We are grateful to our partners who have already committed over USD 800 million to kickstart this investment round, and we look forward to more partners joining us.” 

Today’s announcements represent over 80 percent of the GFF’s fundraising goal of USD 1 billion by the end of 2026 — with additional pledges expected in the coming months. 

As part of these commitments, philanthropies and the private sector have committed funding to scale up access to innovations and key commodities. These include USD 250 million for Sustainable Commodities Access Program — launching today — which will incentivize countries to invest more to expand access to high-quality commodities and fix supply chain system bottlenecks; and a first investment of USD 15 million for a new innovations challenge program, which will catalyze further funding for the scale-up of the Safer Births Bundle of Care in 10 countries. 

Commitments announced today include: 

  • Government of Canada: CAD 190 million

  • Government of Germany: EUR 45 million

  • Government of the Netherlands: USD 186 million

  • Government of Norway: NOK 600 million

  • Children’s Investment Fund Foundation: USD 150 million

  • Gates Foundation: USD 200 million

  • Laerdal Scale Up Fund: USD 15 million

Launched in 2015, the GFF has demonstrated the power of its country-led, catalytic model. Since joining the GFF, partner countries have become global leaders in reducing maternal and child deaths, and three-quarters have reduced their rates of childhood stunting.

Hon. Reem Alabali Radovan, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany: “All women and girls everywhere must be able to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures. Investing in health and gender equality is key to realizing this fundamental human right. Our renewed commitment to the GFF is a particularly powerful investment in the wellbeing and futures of women, children and adolescents everywhere, because the GFF works through country systems, on budget and incentivizes governments to take action.” 

Hon. Dr. Lucia Rizka Andalucia, Deputy Minister of Health, Indonesia: “The Government of Indonesia has prioritized investing in the health of women and children as critical for our country's future prosperity. Our partnership with the GFF is enabling Indonesia to expand and sustain access to essential health and nutrition services as well as early screening and treatment to prevent cervical cancer. GFF’s expertise and leveraging power is a key tool in our arsenal to drive innovation and smarter spending on health for greater impact.” 

Hon. Baroness Jenny Chapman of Darlington, Minister of State for International Development and Africa, UK: “If we care about women and children’s lives, we must care about how health systems are financed and run. That’s why we back the Global Financing Facility. It helps turn limited funding into larger, sustainable finance for countries to improve health systems, whilst also scaling reforms to improve women, girls and young people’s health across the world. It’s about moving from short term fixes to lasting progress.” 

Hon. Mariama Ciré Sylla, Minister of Economy, Finance and Budget, Guinea: “As we learned during the Ebola and COVID crises, a weak primary health care system costs lives and poses a systemic risk to the economy. In line with the Simandou 2040 development program, whose fifth pillar is Health and Well-being, Guinea is partnering with the GFF and IDA to scale up access to quality primary health care and essential health services for women and children, as an investment in our future health and growth. Guinea’s partnership with the GFF is delivering significant returns, helping us reduce health care costs, unlock more domestic resources, and strengthen the resilience of both our health system and our economy against future shocks.”

Hon. Dr. Austin Demby, Chair, GFF Ministerial Network, and Minister of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone: “The GFF is an essential partner to our countries as we strive to move from donor dependency to domestic sustainability. Its catalytic model helps us maximize every dollar towards high-impact health priorities for women and youth. The funding commitments announced today are an incredible start to this Investment Round as the GFF aims to raise USD 1 billion by the end of the year.” 

Kate Hampton, CEO, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation: “Supporting countries to end preventable deaths of children and mothers is a goal CIFF, the GFF, and our partners are all united by. To support country leadership to achieve this, we need to remove the practical barriers, including limited access to essential supplies. That is why CIFF is proud to support the GFF’s newly announced Sustainable Commodities Access Program, which will help ensure reliable, sustained access to critical health-care commodities for women, children, and adolescents.” 

Mr. Shuichi Hosoda, Deputy Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Japan: “The Government of Japan remains committed to the GFF as a highly cost-effective mechanism to help low- and middle-income countries accelerate progress toward universal health coverage. The GFF 2030 strategy points the way for countries to sustainably transform their health systems so they can deliver quality, affordable care to women, children and adolescents and withstand future shocks. Japan looks forward to further strengthening its engagement with the GFF during this investment round.”  

Tore Laerdal, Founder, Laerdal Global Health: “Our partnership with the GFF since 2018 has helped bring the Safer Births Bundle of Care to life — a proven, data-driven approach that has demonstrated clear results in Tanzania, with a reduction of maternal mortality by 75 percent and newborn mortality by 40 percent. To help scale this in 10 countries, we are committing USD 15 million from the newly established Laerdal Scale-Up Fund. We hope this investment will catalyze further support from partners towards a new GFF challenge program so we can collectively reach many more women and newborns with lifesaving care.” 

Rosemary Mburu, Executive Director, WACI Health: “The GFF has shown that its approach delivers results — bringing together governments, global partners, civil society, youth, philanthropies, and the private sector to align around one country-led health plan to strengthen primary health care, reduce health sector fragmentation, and focus resources where they will have the greatest impact on saving lives. Investing in primary health care for women, children, and adolescents is one of the smartest, most cost-effective investments that countries can make in their future growth and resilience. We applaud the donors who have recommitted today to the GFF and urge other funders to step up and support this critical partnership.”  

Hon. Randeep Sarai, Secretary of State, International Development, Canada: “Canada is committed to ensuring women and girls around the world have access to quality health care. We continue to champion the Global Financing Facility and their efforts with partner countries to strengthen health systems and deliver essential services to women, children, and adolescents. As a founding and leading donor, Canada has seen firsthand how this model delivers results. We remain committed to working with the GFF and partners to help scale impact, strengthen accountability, and build resilient systems that contribute to stronger global health security and stability around the world.” 

Hon. Sjoerd Sjoerdsma, Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Netherlands: “Everybody — especially girls and women — should have access to all necessary information and services to make smart choices about their reproductive health and future. This is at the core of our Dutch global health strategy. That is why we continue to invest in the Global Financing Facility (GFF) with a new contribution of USD 186 million.” 

Anita Zaidi, President, Gender Equality Division, Gates Foundation: “Ending maternal and child deaths remains both an urgent priority and an achievable goal. Our commitment to the GFF reflects a clear conviction: that resilient, adequately financed country health systems are essential to improving the health of women and children. We are also proud to support, alongside CIFF, the GFF’s newly launched Sustainable Commodities Access Program, which enables countries to maintain reliable access to critical medicines and supplies.”  

Notes to editors: 
The GFF’s 2026–2030 strategy requires USD 2.2 billion in total. At today’s TRANSFORM 2030 investment round launch, USD 806 million in new pledges were secured. Combined with USD 627 million in existing commitments, total confirmed funding stands at USD 1.43 billion – nearly two-thirds of the overall goal. 

About the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) 
The GFF is a country-led partnership, hosted by the World Bank, which was established in 2015 to end preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents. The GFF provides catalytic grant financing and technical assistance to low- and middle-income countries to strengthen their health systems and improve the quality of and access to health and nutrition services through better use of data, prioritized plans, aligned financing, and policy reforms. The GFF’s collaborative model brings together partner countries, bilateral and multilateral funders, philanthropies, global health institutions, civil society organizations, youth-led organizations, and the private sector to align their support around nationally-owned priorities for women, children and adolescent health and nutrition. 

Website 
Global Financing Facility 

Media Contact 
Richa Bhattarai
rbhattarai@worldbankgroup.org
+1 202.243.9219 

  1. GFF Investment Case: Transforming the Future