PR97357

GENEVA, Aug. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

The Global Fund collaborates with the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the

Skoll Foundation to Launch the Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund

Private sector investments to the Global Fund's Africa Frontline First

Catalytic Fund from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the Skoll Foundation

totaling US$ 25 million.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria intends to further match this

commitment by at least with 1:1.

Designed in partnership with the Africa Frontline First Initiative, the Africa

Frontline First Catalytic Fund (AFF-CF) will accelerate scale up of community

health services in up to 10 African countries.

The Catalytic Fund seeks to mobilize at least $100 million to improve community

health systems that are providing essential medical care for up to 130 million

people.

Investing in frontline community health workers can generate a return of up to

10:1 when considering the improved economic, health, and social outcomes of

community health workers.

Today the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is announcing a crucial new

catalytic fund to support community health workers across up to 10 African

countries. The Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund (AFF-CF) will provide

financing to accelerate and sustain the scale up of frontline community health

workers, the backbone of community health services.

The Global Fund warmly welcomes the first investments to the Africa Frontline

First Catalytic Fund from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the Skoll

Foundation totaling US $25 million. The Global Fund intends to match these and

other investments to bolster support to and domestic financing for community

health workers.

These pledges come ahead of the Global Fund's Seventh Replenishment, which aims

to raise US $18 billion to fund its next three-year cycle of grants. The Global

Fund estimates that the funding of US $18 billion would save 20 million lives,

while strengthening health and community systems to reinforce pandemic

preparedness.

"For the first time in 20 years, many countries have seen HIV, TB and malaria

cases worsen and community health workers are at the forefront of fighting

these diseases. This is a unique moment for leaders to join forces and invest

in the people and structures that will fight pandemics, infectious diseases,

and other health threats, now and in the future" said Peter Sands, Executive

Director of The Global Fund.

A professionalized workforce of community health workers, who work hand in hand

with communities, is key to responding to future outbreaks and making gains on

longstanding priorities. The Global Fund applauds these initial pledges from

the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the Skoll Foundation, but much more

financial investment is needed to unlock the full potential and to ensure

people access to professionalized, trained, compensated, and integrated

community health workers.

The Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund will help ensure that up to 10

African countries accelerate progress and improve health care delivered at the

community level, as well as crucially ensure the women, who make up the large

proportion of community health workers, are properly paid for their work. The

Catalytic Fund will combine coordinated technical assistance and implementation

funding, as well as investments to scale financing, employ digital tools,

increase the availability of essential life-saving commodities, and better

integrate community health workers within the overall health system.

"Health workers are the cornerstone of care. By training, empowering, and

integrating community health workers into existing health systems it's possible

to extend care and reduce the burden of disease for millions of people." said

Joaquin Duato, CEO of Johnson & Johnson. "The Johnson & Johnson Foundation

committed $15 million to the Africa Frontline First Catalytic Fund to ensure

delivery of effective, efficient, and equitable care at the frontlines."

The Global Fund Catalytic Fund approach has already shown the power of

leveraging philanthropic funding. For example, support from the Children's

Investment Fund Foundation for HIV self-testing has increased funding fivefold

in two years and increased HIV self-test procurement from thousands to millions

in the five countries where it works.

"On the frontlines of pandemic response and prevention, community health

workers are critical to bringing essential healthcare to the last mile," said

Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation. "The Africa Frontline First Catalytic

Fund brings the power of social innovators like the Financing Alliance for

Health and Last Mile Health together with the strength of the Global Fund to

ensure that community health workers are paid, trained, and equipped to

maintain essential services and lead responses to COVID-19, Ebola, and other

outbreaks."

This catalytic investment is a first step towards a broader shared ambition to

scale community health, contributing to expanding universal health coverage. As

part of this effort,

Africa Frontline First is collaborating with the COVID-19 Commission, which

supports H.E. President Ramaphosa in his role as the African Union Champion on

COVID-19. In line with the African Union's New Public Health Order, this

collaboration pursues the AU's broader target of deploying 2 million community

health workers by 2030.

More than 85% of community health workers in Africa, the majority of whom are

women, are not paid for their work.  Experience shows that professional

community health workers - who are paid, trained, and supervised - are best

equipped to provide essential health services in their communities, even amid

great challenges.

"In Liberia and around the world, we have seen the power of community health

workers to deliver essential care in rural and remote communities - and to

maintain that care during crises like the Ebola epidemic and the COVID-19

pandemic," said Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nobel Peace Prize

recipient and former President of Liberia. "The Africa Frontline First

Catalytic Fund is a unique opportunity to invest in those health workers and

catalyze real change, creating a healthier and safer world for all."

The Global Fund is a worldwide movement to defeat HIV, TB and malaria and

ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all. We raise and invest

more than US$4 billion a year to fight the deadliest infectious diseases,

challenge the injustice which fuels them and strengthen health systems in more

than 100 of the hardest hit countries. Since the beginning of the COVID-19

pandemic, we have invested an additional US$4.3 billion to fight the new

pandemic and reinforce systems for health. We unite world leaders, communities,

civil society, health workers and the private sector to find solutions that

have the most impact, and we take them to scale worldwide. Since 2002, the

Global Fund has saved 44 million lives.

Africa Frontline First is a collaborative effort by the Financing Alliance for

Health, Last Mile Health, the Community Health Acceleration Partnership, and

Community Health Impact Coalition under the championship of President Ellen

Johnson Sirleaf.

Information on the work of the Global Fund is available at www.theglobalfund.org　

Information on Africa Frontline First is available at  

www.africafrontlinefirst.org　

Follow the Global Fund on Twitter: http://twitter.com/globalfund

Follow Africa Frontline First on Twitter: https://twitter.com/frontline1st

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1869619/The_Global_Fund_Logo.jpg

SOURCE: The Global Fund