Africa: Joint Ministerial Communiqué on Sustainable Financing for Women's, Children's, and Adolescents' Health

19 April 2026
The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa (Pretoria)
document

Washington, D.C — We, the Members of the Global Leaders Network for Women's, Children's, and Adolescents' Health (GLN) and participating Ministers of Health and Finance, in partnership with the Women's Health and Economic Empowerment Network (WHEN) and the Partnerships for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, convened on the margins of the World Bank–IMF Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C. to advance a shared agenda: strengthening sustainable, diversified financing for Women's, Children's, and Adolescents' Health.

We recognise that the GLN Heads of State and Government have made a political
commitment to advancing the health and well-being of women, children, and
adolescents. As ministers responsible for public resource stewardship, we commit to
translating that political commitment into financing solutions.

We meet at a moment of significant pressure on global health financing. Official
development assistance is declining at a pace that threatens to reverse decades of
progress. Rising debt burdens, demographic pressures, and competing national
priorities constrain fiscal space in many of our countries.

At the same time, the health needs of our populations continue to grow, and the consequences of inaction fall most heavily on women, children, and adolescents. Maternal and newborn mortality, adolescent health outcomes, access to sexual and reproductive health services, surgery, and women's cancer care all remain areas of urgent concern, and all are sensitive to fluctuations in both domestic and external financing.

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The current health financing landscape compels us to think differently about how
health systems are financed and how resources are allocated. Sustainable financing
requires the strategic alignment and structuring of concessional, public, and private
capital to mobilize and scale health sector investments. Today, through the GLN's
Financial Diplomacy Series, we will collaborate with WHEN and invited experts to structure these blended financing solutions with development finance institutions, the private sector, and governments around country-led investment priorities.

Strengthening national health insurance systems and expanding financial protection
are equally essential to reducing out-of-pocket expenditures and preventing
catastrophic health spending, as these burdens fall heavily on the most vulnerable
populations, including women and adolescents, particularly those in the informal
sector.

We call on our partners: development finance institutions, the private sector, and the
international community, to align behind these priorities and to act with the urgency the moment demands.

Issued by the Ministers of Finance of the GLN Members and Indonesia, World Bank–
IMF Spring Meetings, Washington, D.C., 16 April 2026.

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