- Global Action for Children has today received half a million dollars grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to assist African governments to meet 15 percent commitment of the national budget to health.
The organisation's Executive Director Jennifer Delaney said the funding will boost the global advocacy which is critical towards improving government finance on health and health infrastructure.
"Funding will enable us to work with our African and global advocacy partners towards realising critical developments in health," she said.
In 2001, at the African Union summit in Abuja, Nigeria, member states pledged to commit 15 percent of their national budgets to health.
Analysts said sustainable health financing from governments in Africa is critical for implementing national health policies that improve health care infrastructure to address constant health challenges like HIV/AIDS, TB, child mortality, malaria, and other disease burdens that impede economic growth.
"In this new effort, advocates from Africa, Europe, and North America will build on and work together through transnational advocacy networks to hold African governments accountable to invest more in health care," GAC statement said.
Bill and Melinda Gates foundation supports a number of health programmes in Africa, most targeted to children and the poor.
In Lesotho, the Foundation supports paediatric access and treatment programmes, which also extend research work on the pandemic in collaboration with other partners and institutions.
GAC is dedicated to advocating for orphans and highly vulnerable children in the developing world. It works to increase funding and ensure it is spent effectively so all children have the health care, education, food, and protection they need to grow up in a safe and healthy environment.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
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