Blogs

Save the Children and ACTION's new policy brief looks deeper into the impact of immunization, and the importance of immunization equity through the assessment of five countries, showcases the programmatic and financial challenges for health systems and immunization systems in the coming years, provides suggested approaches through primary health care and domestic resource mobilization, and highlights risks and opportunities - showing that ultimately we are not being ambitious enough. 

The change in timeline for GPEI wind-down poses a significant opportunity to assess what progress has been made in polio transition planning. We must act now to ensure immunisation coverage rates and immunisation systems are strengthened. RESULTS UK and ACTION’s new policy brief which looks deeper into the seven publically available transition plans, identifies the true cost of transition, unpredictable timelines, assumption of donor support, and a lack of ambition as common themes in the plans. 

The Global Financing Facility (GFF) presents an opportunity for governments to increase investments in the building blocks for healthy development and progress on RMNCAH-N. The GFF We Want Campaign, led by WACI Health, captured and elevated civil society’s voice in the lead up to November’s US$1 billion replenishment.

World leaders have committed to achieving specific targets by 2030 related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health plus nutrition (RMNCAH+N). Delivery of these targets requires substantial investments through national and international commitments and accountability in budget allocation and spending. In the lead up to this replenishment of the GFF, WACI Health and ACTION facilitated a regional consultation to elevate the voice of civil society through the "GFF We Want" campaign.

"A lot of money was spent for treatment, so the financial pressure increased. If the money could have been saved, we may have eaten better food." Millions of people are pushed into poverty each year due to out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses. How will universal health coverage (UHC) schemes deal with seemingly innocuous health costs for primary care such as medicines, travel, food, and accommodations or lost income due to illness?

I grew up in a village where malnutrition was a big issue, where our neighbors did not have enough food and had a big number of children—some of them stunted. The stunted children repeated countless number of classes. Imagine how painful it is to live in a village and have 38 percent of children, which is 2 in 5, stunted, affecting their academic performance and ultimately their productivity in the future.

United by a common desire to improve health conditions for people across the globe, ACTION partners came together in Washington, DC, July 13–17, to celebrate its successes and devise strategies to conquer conditions and diseases of poverty like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, polio, and malnutrition.

This year’s World Health Assembly (WHA) saw several “firsts” in its more than seven decades history.  The 71^st was a landmark WHA, showcasing a major shift in how the World Health Organization (WHO) engages with civil society and how it approaches global health: namely seeking to advance individual systems of care (i.e., primary health, childbirth, surgery, and diagnostics) instead of just monitoring individual diseases. Here are some key takeaways!