At least 10 million people in developing nations, including Malawi, will get access to free health care, in an aid deal spearheaded by UK PM Gordon Brown.
For the past year, Mr Brown and the director of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, have been leading an international taskforce to raise money to help improve health care in developing countries. Through a plan unveiled at the United Nations on the 23rd September 2009, the BBC reports that an aid deal promises at least 10 million people in developing nations, including Malawi, will get access to free health care.
As the BBC article reports, the plan’s initial focus will be to help mothers and young children in an effort to reduce high levels of maternal and infant mortality. It will be backed by $5bn (£3bn) from states and the online travel industry, with the balance being raised by the United Kingdom, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands, through an extension of the international finance facility which raises money on capital markets through government bonds which will be repaid from future aid budgets. Mr Brown said the UK's contribution would be worth £250m ($410m). Mr Brown said the world must be "shamed" into stopping child deaths.
Women and children First and other key international health charities have asked the government to consider innovative financing methods through a letter published in the Guardian. We hope that the Centre for Progressive Health Financing, mentioned in this BBC article, will continue to find innovative means to raise the much needed funds to improve the wellbeing of women and children in the poorest communities.
To read the BBC article in full, click here.
To read the published letter asking the Government to consider innovative funding methods, click here.
To read the letter sent to Robert Zoellick (director of the World Bank) in the lead up to the 23rd September meeting, click here.
Post to Facebook 
Post to Delicious 
Post to Digg 
Post to StumbleUpon