Spotlight Session: Domestic Solutions for Sustainable Family Planning Financing to 2030 and Beyond
July 21, 2017
Although investing in family planning is recognised as a development "best-buy," finding the resources to fund it can be challenging. At the July 2017 Family Planning Summit in London, HP+'s Deputy Director for Family Planning/Reproductive Health, Jay Gribble, curated and moderated a spotlight session on domestic solutions for sustainable family planning financing.
The session brought the perspectives of five presenters who addressed the challenge of family planning financing using a range of instruments. Some of these instruments include raising revenue from earmarked taxes, presented by Ethiopia's State Minister of Health, Dr. Kebede Worku; co-financing programs through the World Bank's International Development Association and others and finding efficiencies through improved alignment between different funding partners, presented by Executive Director of the Global Financing Facility, Dr. Mariam Claeson; and using donor support to leverage funds through municipal and subnational governments through the Challenge Initiative, presented by Johns Hopkins University's Dr. Mojisola Oduku.
Costed implementation plans—a cornerstone of FP2020 country strategies—are also helping to leverage funds for family planning. Palladium's Senior Technical Advisor, Christine Lasway, presented on how countries have and are increasingly using such plans to make the case for different types of domestic resource mobilization. A by-product of the process to develop a strategic plan and estimate the cost to execute the plan and achieve national FP2020 commitments is a ready-made advocacy tool.
Political commitment, budget advocacy, and accountability play a critical role in efforts to keep domestic funding paced with growth of the health budget. Rachel Cullen, a director at Evidence for Action, presented on how budget advocacy is proving to be an effective approach for engaging civil society and building civil society capacity to track the allocation and release of funds for reproductive health programs.
While there are no easy solutions to the challenge of domestic resource mobilization, these presentations focused attention on how to leverage existing tools as well as opportunities to increase investments in family planning and consider new options to support this best buy in health.
