ADB, Global Fund Join Forces to Strengthen Health Systems and Advance Universal Health Coverage

MANILA — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) have signed a memorandum of understanding to form transformative partnerships that strengthen health systems and promote universal health coverage (UHC).

The cooperation arrangement will develop various financing to boost on-budget domestic resources and crowd in additional financing for increased concessionality, additional technical assistance, and robust monitoring of health programs delivery. This includes opportunities to collaborate on joint investments through loan buy-downs or cofinancing of existing or new health-focused projects. The partnership will leverage the Global Fund’s expertise and inclusive country-led models to improve access to primary health care services and control of infectious diseases like malaria and tuberculosis for the most vulnerable in Asia and the Pacific.

“To support a planned, phased transition away from Global Fund grants toward sustainable domestic health financing, ADB can strengthen policy and financial capacity to achieve UHC, which will ensure primary health service provision and build increased country capacity for efficient use of scarce domestic resources for health,” said ADB Human Social Development Sectors Group Senior Director Ayako Inagaki.

“Development finance institutions like ADB can enhance the impact of Global Fund grants by leveraging additional investments, strengthening health systems, and building financial sustainability,” said Global Fund Executive Director Peter Sands. “We must further develop and deploy innovative financing mechanisms to help the most vulnerable countries access the resources they need to tackle health inequities and accelerate the fight to end the epidemics for good.”

The two organizations will also build the capacity of countries for more efficient and sustainable financing across health systems, in order to make better use of limited domestic and international health resources.

The Global Fund is a worldwide partnership to defeat HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria and ensure a healthier, safer, more equitable future for all. The partnership raises and invests more than $5 billion a year to fight the deadliest infectious diseases, challenge the injustice that fuels them, and strengthen health systems and pandemic preparedness in more than 100 of the hardest hit countries. Since 2002, the Global Fund has saved 59 million lives.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.