World Bank scales up RBF with new partners

On December 11th, RBF experts from around the world will meet in Oslo to review the experience with RBF programs so far and determine a roadmap for scaling up.

Besides the partners, Norway, UK, the World Bank Group, UNICEF, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and GAVI Alliance, representatives from Germany, Japan, Sweden, the US and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will attend the meeting. These attendees have expressed interest in joining the RBF program.

Almost all see RBF as a way to get more results for their money and efforts. For example, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria recently joined the partnership for RBF, expanding funding objectives beyond maternal and child health to include malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.

“We studied the RBF results very carefully,” says Mark Dybul, M.D., Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Clearly, if it worked for maternal and newborn health, it should work for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.”

“When we invest in the areas of greatest need – the most disadvantaged communities – we achieve the greatest results,” says Anthony Lake, Executive Director of UNICEF, who will attend the meeting. “Results-based financing can help us make better and smarter investments there. This is good for the most marginalized populations and it’s good for investors – all those who are putting their hard-earned resources into helping others.”

“Accountability and results are at the heart of GAVI’s work with countries. By joining in the RBF effort, we can help children in getting other lifesaving medicines and join forces to reach every last child,” says Seth Berkley, M.D., CEO of The GAVI Alliance.

Rajiv Shah, M.D., M.B.A., USAID Administrator, says, “Emblematic of a more results-oriented, evidence-based approach to development, initial RBF results from these low-income countries are promising. By delivering global health more efficiently and effectively than ever before, we can help end extreme poverty and its most devastating consequences of child hunger and child death.”

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