In 2015, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) committed $900m to support the Every Woman Every Child updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030). In 2019, we disbursed over $147m towards these goals, bringing our total disbursement in the period of 2015-2019 to $607m. Amid the current global uncertainty relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, we wish to reaffirm our commitment to our charitable objectives of improving children’s lives and protecting the climate.
In 2019, CIFF launched several new initiatives aligned with the EWEC Global Strategy. Our new Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) strategy, focuses on the prevention and treatment of SAM for all children in need, whilst supporting greater accountability and building the evidence globally. Our new Adolescent Self-Care strategy works to empower more individuals to take charge of their own sexual health and seek out the tools and services that best meet their needs. Lastly, our new Girl Capital strategy supports girls’ education, technical and life skills development, income generation as well as fostering an enabling environment in communities, schools and the workplace. CIFF programmes also achieved major milestones in 2019. Power of Nutrition reached over 28 million children, young women, and adolescent girls with essential nutrition services in Liberia, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and over 1900 traffickers were identified through the Mukti Caravan (Freedom Caravan) campaign by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. Our Adolescence programmes expanded the availability of self-care tools and broadened the adoption of youth-led design for future SRH programmes. Major progress was made on DMPA-SC (a type of self-injectable contraceptive), a ‘dual-pill’ for HIV and pregnancy prevention, and HIV self-testing with dozens of countries supporting scale-up, including Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda.
CIFF’s engagement with Ethiopia increased significantly over 2019, resulting in the Government of Ethiopia’s commitment to match CIFF’s funding in the country. The Government of Ethiopia collaborated with CIFF on the issue of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), initiating major actions towards eliminating trachoma, a disease with the potential to permanently blind those who contract it. CIFF has further supported projects to prevent transmission of soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis.
In India, $33m of CIFF’s current active investments have unlocked $150m of Government co-investment on issue areas such as safe childbirth, family planning and addressing low birth weight. CIFF India programming included the Ab Meri Baari (‘Now, it’s my turn’) programme, which explores positive ways to shift the narrative on teenage pregnancy. As part of the programme, over 300 girl champions were trained to conduct social audits on adolescent SRH programmes across Rajasthan and Jharkhand.
Whilst CIFF’s broader climate activities do not fall under our original EWEC commitment figure, it is important to note that combating climate change is integral to achieving a safe, healthy and prosperous future for our children. To this end, CIFF disbursed $112m to climate change programmes in 2019. This included $20m in support to the Clean Air Fund, which formally launched at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019.
