Giving Compass' Take:

• Diana Duong explains how the Global Financing Facility works with governments in vulnerable counties to develop systemic, sustainable changes to improve health outcomes for women and children. 

• How can this model be expanded? What countries have the most need? 

• Learn about progress on child and maternal health outcomes globally.

For women in the most vulnerable countries, becoming pregnant is an immediate risk. That is why the Global Financing Facility (GFF) was launched in 2015 with one mission: to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition.

The GFF works with countries’ ministries of health and finance to eliminate bottlenecks in healthcare systems and find efficient and sustainable ways to finance — and ultimately improve — health outcomes for women, children, and adolescents.

While Cameroon's health spending per capita is generally higher than other Sub-Saharan African countries, outcomes for maternal and newborn health have remained grim. Mortality rates did decrease over the years, but not at an encouraging rate.

Individuals are still paying out of pocket for a majority of their health care, which can push them into poverty. Girls living in poverty can be forced into prostitution, which can result in teen pregnancies.

Education helps prevent child marriage. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she'll be pushed into marriage and pregnancy at a young age. The Global Partnership for Education conducted a study on girls' education in 42 countries and found that early marriage and violence at school were the biggest barriers to girls' education.

An important focus has been on increasing family planning services.

Since the GFF has been working with the government of Cameroon, it has been able to provide a $27-million grant and has helped scale up interventions such as providing life skills coaching for adolescent girls, as well as guidelines and support on breastfeeding, covering at least 25% of the population. Early progress also shows increased access to family planning services in Cameroon, thereby also improving access to contraception for adolescent girls.

Read the full article about maternal health by Diana Duong at Global Citizen.