About > Initiatives

Existing Health Systems Strengthening Initiatives

• IHP+
  The launch of the International Health Partnership came at the same time as a range of initiatives, grouped under the Global Campaign for Health MDGs, all aimed at accelerating the achievement of the health related MDGs in line with the Paris Declaration. The Health 8 agencies agreed to take advantage of the growing commitment to provide support to strengthening national health systems in the context of these initiatives, and created a coordination process and a common work-plan called the IHP+ (International Health Partnership and related initiatives). In Africa, the IHP+ builds on work already started through the 'Harmonization for Health in Africa' (HHA) mechanism, launched in 2006 with similar objectives.



• Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA)
  The Harmonization for Health in Africa mechanism is consolidating itself as the operational and capacity building support modality to countries and development partners to facilitate:
  1. evidence- and country-based planning, costing and budgeting for health outcomes;
  2. alignment to country processes and harmonization; and
  3. systems bottleneck analysis and support to overcome them. Developed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS, WHO, and the World Bank, the HHA is an Action Framework for 'tackling the barriers to scaling up in health'.



• Innovative Results-Based Financing (IRBF)
  IRBF is a 6-year grant (FY 2007-2013) from the Government of Norway to the World Bank for $105 million. The objectives of this grant are to design, implement and sustain successful results-based financing pilots targeting MDGs 4 and 5 and, through these pilots, generate new knowledge about how to governments and partners can most effectively design and use Results-Based Financing (RBF) mechanisms in health. Thus, the definition of success of this grant is effective and sustained RBF mechanisms aimed at MDGs 4 and 5.



• The Catalytic Initiative to Save a Million Lives (CI)
  The Catalytic Initiative aims to intensify efforts to achieve MDGs 4 and 5 by strengthening the focus of national plans and budgets and the capacity of country-led systems to deliver packages of proven, high-impact and cost-effective health and nutrition interventions for children and pregnant women. Community partnerships are supported to strengthen health systems and to educate and inform families on best practices to care for women and children. The CI should be viewed as a concrete step for country-level scale-up of a continuum of care, community partnerships and health systems for outcomes with a focus on "Programme Monitoring and Results Tracking", in order to demonstrate lessons learned (learning by doing).



• Providing for Health (P4H)
  The Providing for Health (P4H) Initiative was designed to complement other initiatives and activities that are working with countries to reduce the health system constraints to scaling up. The focus is on the development of national financing plans, strategies and systems that will provide better social health protection. It aims to ensure that domestic funds for health are raised in a way that does not impose financial barriers to access, and does not result in financial catastrophe or impoverishment when people use services.
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• Deliver Now for Women and Children
  The Deliver Now for Women and Children campaign works to strengthen actions towards achieving MDGs 4 and 5. Launched in September 2007, Deliver Now aims to draw attention to the deaths of more than ten million women and children each year. By intensifying political commitment, increasing investment in health services and supporting community access to health services, such deaths can be averted.



• GAVI Health Systems Strengthening (HSS)
  GAVI's HSS programme assists countries to overcome bottlenecks which often impact other child and maternal health care initiatives. GAVI's HSS mandate is intended to help countries overcome health system weaknesses that impede sustainable increases in immunization coverage. Though not endemic to all countries, the weaknesses include limited local management and supervisory skills, infrastructure failures (transport or equipment), workforce numbers and motivation and training.



• Health Metrics Network (HMN)
  The Health Metrics Network is a global partnership established to help address the lack of reliable health information available in developing countries. The network encourages civil registration as a tool for managing records of births, deaths and marriages in any particular country. These statistics are valuable because they are an indicator of the effectiveness of a national health system as well as a tool for measuring the effectiveness of development aid spending within the country.



• Global Fund National Strategy Applications
  The Global Fund Board decided to enable requests for Global Fund financing consisting of an existing national strategy - which has been certified (or validated) by an independent review mechanism (IRM) - together with minimal additional information (a procedure referred to as "National Strategy Applications"). The aim is to increase aid effectiveness by having partners mobilize around a single common agenda - the development, financing and implementation of robust national strategies. For this reason, the Global Fund Board called upon all partners to develop a shared validation approach for national strategies.



• Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA)
  The Global Health Workforce Alliance is a partnership dedicated to identifying and implementing solutions to the health workforce crisis. A shortage of health workers is impairing provision of essential, life-saving interventions such as childhood immunization, safe pregnancy and delivery services for mothers, as well as access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, chronic disease outbreaks and other health challenges. The GHWFA brings together a variety of actors including national governments, civil society, finance institutions, workers, international agencies, academic institutions and professional associations.



• UN Secretary General's MDG Africa Initiative
  The MDG Africa Initiative recently launched by the UN Secretary-General has three core objectives:
  1. Strengthening international mechanisms to support policy design and mobilize financing in health, education, agriculture and food security, infrastructure and trade facilitation, and statistical systems;
  2. Improving the predictability of aid;
  3. Enhancing the coordination of joint country-level work. WHO and UNICEF will coordinate the work of the thematic group on health, and provide the link to existing coordination mechanisms.