Build Sustainable Financing and Partnerships for Girls and Women

Through Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program, qualifying families receive a small monthly cash transfer -- distributed directly to the female head of household –in exchange for keeping children in school and taking them to regular health checks. The program was spearheaded with support from both the World Bank and the Brazilian government, and has contributed to the rapid reduction of poverty in Brazil – accounting for up to 25% of Brazil’s reduction in inequality and 16% of the drop in extreme poverty. These promising outcomes have directly contributed to intergenerational development and economic growth.

Every Woman Every Child is a global movement to mobilize and intensify action by governments, the United Nations, multilaterals, the private sector, and civil society to address health challenges facing women, children, and adolescents. EWEC is focused on mobilizing all sectors to enact the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health, a roadmap to end all preventable deaths of women, children, and adolescents within a generation. Since the launch of EWEC and the first Global Strategy in 2010, there has been significant progress for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health, including: • Coverage of oral rehydration therapy has increased by 49% • Exclusive breastfeeding has increased by 44% • 11 million additional women have given birth in a health facility • 8.4 million more women and girls use modern contraception • 67% of HIV-positive pregnant women received antiretroviral medicines in 2013, up from 48%, improving maternal health and preventing HIV transmission The newly-updated Global Strategy, launched in 2015, has incorporated lessons learned and new evidence in the field to more effectively address the health needs of women, children, and adolescents. The strategy has a new focus on newborns, adolescents, and those living in fragile and conflict settings. It also encompasses intersectional interventions, including strengthening health systems, insurance coverage, education, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene programs.

The goal of the Global Financing Facility (GFF) is to end preventable maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent deaths and improve the health and quality of life of women, adolescents and children, preventing up to 3.8 million maternal deaths, 101 million child deaths, and 21 million stillbirths in high‐burden countries by 2030. The GFF aims to marshal more than $57 billion between 2015 and 2030 by leveraging partnerships with donors across sectors, and strengthening the utilization of domestic resources to strengthen country ownership.

The Zomba Cash Transfer Program provides monetary incentives, in the form of school fees and cash transfers, to schoolgirls and recent dropouts on the condition that they stay in or return to school. The intervention was designed as a randomized control trial to assess its effectiveness, and evaluations showed that these transfers bore significant results. For program beneficiaries who had been out of school, the probability of getting married declined by 40% and the probability of becoming pregnant declined 30%. The onset of sexual activity was 38% lower among all program beneficiaries than among their peers. This program shows that, with the right combination of incentives, cash transfers can be a powerful tool not only to keep girls in school, but to also positively impact their sexual and reproductive health.