India on Friday pledged a commitment of USD 2 billion at the World Health Organisation’s “Lives in the Balance” summit to provide essential services to women, newborns, young children and adolescents across the world.
The summit organised by WHO’s The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), a global alliance of more than 1,000 organisations, registered a total commitment of USD 20.6 billion from a group of high income, low and middle-income countries and charitable foundations across the world.
“USD 6.6 billion (32 per cent) of the total pledge is from money committed by low and middle-income countries themselves, including Afghanistan, India, Kenya, Liberia, and Nigeria. An additional USD 14 billion (68 per cent) is from official development assistance and grants given by Germany, Canada, Sweden, UK, USA and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” the PMNCH said in a statement.
India’s commitment of USD 2 billion will be used to strengthen all levels of care in response to the pandemic and to ensure essential public health functions during the year 20-21.
“As important as this USD 20.6 billion is, it only will partially solve the problem of providing basic essential services for women, newborns, young children and adolescents,” Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary said.
“Comprehensive efforts and collective advocacy are needed to ensure availability of substantially enhanced financial resources for this noble cause,” he said.
The recent WHO data from 105 countries shows that 90 per cent of countries have experienced disruptions to health services, with low-and middle-income countries reporting the greatest difficulties.
According to early estimates of the indirect impact of Covid-19 on child and maternal mortality, more than 2 million additional deaths are estimated over 12 months (2020-2021) above the pre-pandemic level because of disruptions to essential health and nutrition services.
“The health and well-being of women, children and adolescents are now at great risk, with inequities compounded by narrowing access to essential health services such as antenatal care, skilled assistance at child birth, postnatal care, immunizations and family planning. Our concern is that resources — insufficient to begin with — are being diverted away to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Helen Clark, Chair of PMNCH and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, said.
As of November 2020, 2.8 million children and adolescents have contracted Covid-19 in 87 countries, according to UNESCO. It said that in April, 1.5 billion students were affected by educational institutions closures in 195 countries this year, leading to loss of school meals and critical impacts on child nutrition. “This funding will ensure women, children and adolescents can access health services and priority social protections throughout the Covid-19 crisis and recovery periods,” Clark said.