Gates, others start $ 500 million, newborn health fund, Bucking Aid Cuts Trend

A group of charities, including the Gates Foundation, has set up a fund supported by about $ 500 million to help rescue the lives of newborn babies and mothers in sub -Saharan Africa, which lasts against a gloomy global landscape.

The Authority Fund started Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the home of another key supporter – recently founded the Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation for Mohamed Bin Zayed’s humanity.

The project is in the projects for at least one year. But its role has become more important, as governments worldwide follow the US to pull behind international aid, Alice Kang’et’s chief executive said Reuters In an interview.

“It’s a timely time,” he said earlier this month, stressing that the Fund aims to work alongside African governments, experts and organizations, not the parachute to experts or technologies, an approach that said it was different from traditional programs.

“Two generations ago … Women in the UAE used to die during childbirth. More of half of the children did not survive childhood,” Tala Al Ramahi told the Mohamed Bin Zayed Foundation, saying that the lessons they learned about what they were working on to change these results would help.

The Authority Fund aims to save the lives of 300,000 mothers and newborn babies by 2030 and extend quality care for 34 million mothers and babies.

The partners also promised $ 100 million in direct investment in the parent and health of children separately from the fund.

It plans to operate in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, focusing on low -cost interventions and staff in high curved hospitals. The work will monitor and aim for the main reasons why babies and mothers die, including infection, intense bleeding for mothers and respiratory discomfort for infants.

People have made significant progress in reducing the deaths of newborns and mothers, half -reducing the percentage of newborn mortality between 1990 and 2022, but this progress has been stood or even reversed in almost all areas in recent years, according to the World Health Organization.

“Mothers and newborns should not die from the reasons we know how to prevent,” said Dr. Mekdes Daba, a health minister for Ethiopia, stressing that the majority of deaths can be avoided.

Kang’ethe said the Authority Fund, like other charities, received calls to fill gaps in funding global aid, but remained focused on its long -term goal of changing the trajectory of the mother and the survival of newborns.

The Fund is also supported by the Child Investment Fund Foundation, Delta Charities and the ELMA Foundation, among others. It will be driven by Nairobi, Kenya.