Kenya has committed to enhance partnerships and establish a dedicated fund to help address maternal and child health.
Speaking during an event on the sidelines of the 79th UNGA in New York, President William Ruto observed that only urgent, collective actions can save millions of lives by 2030.
According to Ruto, the fund will help to advance progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by improving service delivery and expanding access to essential care.
Ruto said even though Kenya has made significant strides in reducing maternal and under-five mortality, they were still faced with inadequate funding and limited capacity to provide the necessary services.
He pointed out that only a multi-sectoral approach including healthcare, education and community support can accelerate mortality reduction.
“It is therefore essential to increase investment, enhance collaboration, and focus on primary healthcare to scale up key interventions like skilled birth attendants, vaccinations and improved nutrition,” he said.
From an economic view, keeping people healthy is immensely beneficial with studies showing that every dollar invested in maternal and child health yields nine dollars in return through improved health and productivity.
“Any annual investment of USD1.5 billion could save 35 million lives by 2030 and generate Usd100 billion in productivity and healthcare savings,” Ruto said.
The High-Level event was dubbed, 'Securing the Health and well-being of every woman, child and adolescent: Political leadership to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.'
UNICEF Director of Child Nutrition and Development Victor Aguayo argues that Child Nutrition Fund could be a game changer in addressing maternal and child nutrition.
“It holds the potential to address the child malnutrition crisis and transform philanthropy for maternal and child nutrition,” he says.
“Historically, the world of maternal and child nutrition has been overly reliant on the generosity of global donors. This strategy has created a boom to address some nutrition challenges but has also left critical areas of work inevitably neglected,”
Aguayo says matters, particularly those related to the early prevention of malnutrition among the most vulnerable children, have been ignored.
Simply put, we have long needed a different approach to accelerate our response to the global child malnutrition crisis and a way to fund global maternal and child nutrition efforts sustainably at scale,” he says.
A report released by Bill and Melinda Gates states that although all these interventions will work with resources and extensible plans for implementation behind them are needed.
The Fund is designed to bring these innovative solutions to life and transform the way the world addresses child malnutrition.
The Child Nutrition Fund provides solutions to all three of these problems, in one place.
“We know it will be effective because we’ve already seen these financing mechanisms in action; Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria is a great example,” the report reads.
The Fund which was launched by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with UNICEF, has seen the interventions of the Global Fund funded and deployed and has since saved nearly 60 million lives.
“Now, the Child Nutrition Fund is using a similar approach to attack child malnutrition, head-on, in partnership with countries around the world,” the report said.