PD 26 - Protecting Essential Health Services for Women and Adolescents

As world leaders strive to bring the spread of COVID-19 under control, a secondary health crisis rages in many lower income countries. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupts access to many essential health services, particularly in the poorest nations with the most fragile health systems. Women and girls bear the brunt of the secondary impacts of the pandemic, including dramatic increases in gender-based violence, protracted school closures, job losses and increases in unpaid care. Due to severe disruptions in essential health services, partner countries of the Global Financing Facility (GFF), a global partnership hosted by the World Bank, saw up to a 25% drop in coverage of lifesaving health interventions in 2020 as compared to pre-pandemic levels. This is the equivalent of 4 million pregnant women unable to receive care during childbirth. Researchers have warned of a large number of additional child and maternal deaths if countries are not successful in minimizing disruptions to their health systems and maintaining utilization of RMNCH services. Countries supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (GFATM) report increased health service interruptions in HIV (101%), TB (114%), and malaria (15%) programs, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. This discussion will bring together representatives from the GFF, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, partner countries and civil society to discuss how to protect decades of progress and investment in the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents and how to seize the opportunity to ensure next generation health systems deliver on providing essential health services for women and adolescents.