News

Latest IHP+ News

Ethiopia Signs Joint Financing Arrangement

Addis Ababa, April 15, 2009 - As a follow up to the Compact commitments, the Government of Ethiopia and its Development Partners - DFID, Spanish Development Cooperation, Irish AID, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO and World Bank - have finalized and signed the JFA. 

Over the eight months since the IHP+ Country Compact came into effect, country partners have made significant strides in implementing this landmark Compact, a broad-base agreement between the GOE and diverse multilateral and bilateral Development Partners - which now serves as the overarching framework for coordinating all funding support to Ethiopia's health sector. Read the press release

Innovative Vaccine Investment ISA will help save children’s lives 

March 4, 2009

Investors are being offered an opportunity to save money and help save lives with a new Vaccine Investment ISA which aims to raise £50 million to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries. International Development Secretary of the UK, Douglas Alexander said: "The economic downturn could push millions of people into extreme poverty and cause the deaths of up to 2.8 million children. Innovative initiatives like this are vital if we are to prevent this financial crisis from becoming a human crisis. That is why Gordon Brown is leading a new Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems, to help save the lives of many millions more. More »

Taskforce Consultations

March 3, 2009 

The Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems is investigating new ways of raising money to invest in results-based national health-care systems and is holding a series of stakeholder events to seek your views. The first event will take place on Thursday, 5 March, 2009 in London. The capital will host ore than 60 civil society representatives from across the globe hailing from prominent NGO's, charities and civil society. Participants to this consultation event will engage in a day long seminar. More»

As Financial Crisis Worsens, Geneva Summit Pushes for Faster Health Progress

Geneva, February 5, 2009

With global trade expected to shrink in 2009 for the first time in 27 years and world growth also likely to slide to 0.9 percent, health ministers, aid and development agencies, and NGOs meeting in Geneva this week have appealed to aid donors to follow through on their foreign aid commitments for health during the crisis, citing the need to push for even faster progress in strengthening weak health systems in Africa and Asia.

At a press conference to mark the start of a Geneva health summit, organized by the International Health Partnership and Related Initiatives (IHP+), ministers, agency officials and civil society groups said it was imperative during the financial crisis not to cut back on spending and aid flows for health at the very moment that countries were making progress in reducing preventable illness and deaths for millions of the world’s poorest people. Read the press release

The participants of the IHP+ Ministerial Review Meeting adopted a document laying out bold and concrete commitments to push forward the objectives of the Partnership "We reaffirmed our commitment to maintaining levels of development aid and domestic health budgets. We also commit to delivering predictable financing, and ensuring the effective use of all domestic and external resources. This is critical to achieving results and attracting additional resources"


 Read the Communiqué in Full           Version En Francais

Read all documents from the Ministerial Review Meeting


ON FEBRUARY 4TH RWANDA AND UGANDA BECAME THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF IHP+/strong>



Read all documents from the Ministerial Review Meeting


OECD expresses its support to the IHP+

February 2, 2009 - "We are very pleased to see the strong commitment to implementing the principles of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action through the IHP+. Through an increasing dialogue with the IHP+ and our recent contribution to the report on Country Health Sector Teams commissioned by WHO for the IHP+, we welcome more communication and new opportunities for mutually beneficial work, using common tools and references deriving from the aid effectiveness agenda" reads the letter from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in support to the IHP+. More »

Nepal signed the first Asian Compact

February 1st, 2009 - International Health Partnership and related initiative's (IHP+-national compact ) Country Compact with the name of ' Nepal Health Development Partnership' has been signed on February 1st, 2009 . The nationa compact was signed by the health secretary Dr Dirgh Singh Bom, on behalf of the Government of Nepal, and DFID, AUSAid and Germany among the bilateral and WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS and the World Bank among the multilateral. Minster of Finance Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Minister of Health Mr Giriraj Mani Pokharel, and Prof Guna Nidhi Sharama vice chair National Planning Commission , witnessed the ceremony as chief guests. With this, Nepal has become first country to sign an IHP+ Country Compact from Asia.

Read the speech of Nepal Minister of Health at Geneva Ministerial Meeting
Read Nepal Country Compact

Civil society representatives on the IHP+ SurG selected

December 2008

Dr. Lola Dare and Sue Perez were selected to represent Civil Society on the Scaling-Up Reference Group of the IHP+. Their alternates will be Mayowa Joel and Eleine Ireland. The newly appointed representatives and alternates will work on the formation and composition of the Advisory Group. The selection process was convened by International Civil Society Support, at request and under guidance of the Transitional Steering Group Members of the Selection Committee were Ms. Carol Nyirenda from Zambia, Dr. Bobby John from India and Dr. Tim Reed from the Netherlands
More » 
International leaders call for more investment in global health
1st December 2008 A new high-level Taskforce to identify and promote innovative financing mechanisms for health results in poor countries, held its inaugural meeting in Doha at the UN Financing for Development Conference. This builds on substantial  experience gained since the first conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey in 2002."This is a unique moment for us all. These are extraordinary, challenging times for the global economy. Yet we know they are also extraordinary, challenging times for the millions of poor. For the tragic truth remains that a child dies every three seconds, a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth every minute and there are around 7,000 new HIV infections every day" said the UK Secretary of State Douglas Alexander in Doha at the first meeting of the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems. Read the Press Statement

The US Government  expresses its support to the IHP

'The United States welcomes the contribution of the International Health Partnership and supports the principles on which it is based, which derive from Paris Declaration on Aid effectiveness. We share a strong interest in supporting efforts to build health systems and prevent and treat diseases' states the letter co-signed by USAID's Director Henrieta H. Fore and US Global Aids Coordinator, Ambassador Mark Dybul
More »
Impact of the global financial and economic crisis on health

November 2008

On November 12, Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, issued a statement on the implications current financial crisis may have on health We face a severe financial crisis of unprecedented dimensions in a world that has never before been so closely connected and interdependent. The consequences are global. The situation is volatile. The current financial crisis is rapidly becoming an economic crisis and threatens to become a social crisis in many countries.
read the statement in full..
Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Result-Based Financing Update

November 2008

Briefly stated, results-based financing (RBF) for health is cash or goods provided when measurable actions are taken or a defined performance target is achieved. It is an innovative financing strategy that can increase the impact of investments in health by providing a financial or in-kind reward conditional upon achievement of agreed performance goals.  The RBF IWG recently released the first Update on its work. Read the first edition of RBF update. In addition, an interim results-based financing web site was launched by the World Bank in August 2008. www.worldbank.org/hnp/rbf 

Global action for health systems discussed in Tokyo

November 2008

As a follow up to discussions around the last G8, a conference on global action for health systems strengthening was held in Tokyo on 3-4 November, involving leaders from agencies involved in the global effort to strengthen health systems. Draft papers were discussed, on health information, health workforce and health financing which will now be amended for publication and are attached here for information. Read in full the document ' Global Action for Health System Strengthening'

Brussels’ Declaration “The Future of Parliamentary Involvement in Global Health and Development”

October 20,  2008

'We, Parliamentarians from European countries and the European Parliament, participants of the Conference “The Future of Parliamentary Involvement in Global Health and Development held in Brussels on the 20 October 2008, commit ourselves to provide political leadership on a national, European and international level to Global Health and Development in order to improve the wellbeing of the millions of people, and to hold ourselves accountable to our commitments in a transparent and responsible manner' reads the Declaration adopted in Brussels by European Parliamentaries

Brussels'  Declaration in English »  

Brussels'  Declaration in French »

Conference Report »
WHO Revives 1978 Plan to Provide 'Health for All'

24 September 2008 | Jason Gale

World Health Organization head Margaret Chan is reviving a 30-year-old approach to providing universal health care to meet United Nations goals for development and her commitment to helping women and Africans.

Chan, 61, is emphasizing primary health care as a means to providing equitable access to care and efficiency in service delivery -- goals described in the so-called Declaration of Alma-Ata in 1978 that targeted "health for all'' by 2000 and which the WHO concluded in 1994 weren't achievable. The new plan for primary health will be detailed in the Geneva-based agency's World Health Report, scheduled for release next month. read the complete article »

IHP+ presented at Twenty-sixth Meeting of Ministers of Health of South East Asia
 September 8-9, 2008 At twenty-sixth Meeting of Ministers of Health of South East Asia held in New Delhi, India, 8–9 September 2008, Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, briefed the participants on the IHP+. She pointed out that the MDGs cannot be achieved unless there is a radical change in the way the UN system, donor agencies and national governments function. She stressed the need to adopt a results-based approach and introduce transparency and accountability. 'In this way IHP+ can deliver on the Paris Declaration’s promises and build on existing structures, mechanisms and country health plans. IHP+ can become one of the most important tools for scaling up health services delivery' she said.
More »


UN-backed scheme aims to reduce maternal mortality by boosting health systems

25 September 2008 | UN News Centre

The United Nations has teamed up with world leaders to launch a new initiative to strengthen health systems in an effort to reduce the number of women who die in pregnancy and childbirth, one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with a 2015 deadline. The task force on maternal mortality, which will be co-chaired by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, will focus on innovative financing to strengthen health care systems and pay for health care workers. read the press release »
"AID EFFECTIVENESS : Better Health"

2 September 2008 |

The report prepared for the Accra High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness being held in Accra, Ghana on 02-04 September 2008 is now available. The document serves as a review of the progress made towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals.. read the report »