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Dear colleagues and partners,
This month has been a defining moment for our shared mission to protect and promote the health and rights of women, children and adolescents (WCAH). Across regions and platforms, we are witnessing both the urgency of the global health financing crisis and the growing political momentum to meet it with innovation and solidarity.
At the start of September, the Global Leaders Network (GLN) launched its inaugural Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) webinar-a critical response to the projected 40% decline in official development assistance (ODA) for health between 2023 and 2025. The discussions underscored a stark reality: without urgent action, we risk over one million additional preventable deaths by 2030. Ministers of Health and Finance from across Africa showcased bold strategies: Ethiopia’s expansion of community-based health insurance to 63 million people, Malawi’s health-specific tax reforms, Nigeria’s legal framework to secure 1% of federal revenue for primary care, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s pioneering health tax expected to generate $1.4 billion annually. These examples reaffirm that political leadership, cross-sectoral coordination, and innovative domestic financing are not only possible—they are essential.
Just days later, the PMNCH-led health financing webinar gathered global partners to call for urgent collective action to protect WCAH amidst shrinking resources. Partners warned that funding cuts, misinformation, and rights pushback threaten decades of hard-won progress. The message was clear: safeguarding the health and rights of women, children, and adolescents must remain a political, economic and moral priority. Read the summary here.
Our collective advocacy culminated in high-level events on the margins of the 80th UN General Assembly (UNGA).
At the 13th Annual PMNCH Accountability Breakfast, partners confronted the dual challenge of funding cuts and misinformation. We unveiled PMNCH’s Strategy 2026–2030-“Partnership for Change”-as a movement for rights, equity and collective action. The call to “disrupt the status quo” resonated strongly: this is not a time to “meet and repeat,” but to reimagine partnerships and hard-wire accountability from the outset.
At the GLN–ALMA “Unite for Global Health Security” session, Presidents Ramaphosa, Boko and Ruto, alongside leaders from Africa CDC, AU, AUDA-NEPAD and UN agencies, sounded a powerful call: accelerate domestic resource mobilization in part by establishing an Africa led gap financing mechanism, replenish the Global Fund, operationalize the African Medicines Agency, scale up immunization, maternal health and adolescent sexual reproductive health programmes, and ensure that investment in WCAH and malaria elimination is treated as both a human right and an economic
PMNCH also-with partners-organized a side event on NCDs and maternal health exploring the linkages between the two and strategies for integrating approaches to addressing both. For instance, pregnancy can exacerbate pre-existing NCDs, heightening risks for both mother and child. Gestational diabetes, the most common medical complication of pregnancy, affects approximately 1 in 6 pregnant women worldwide. Other common conditions in pregnancy include asthma, cardiac disorders, epilepsy, and mental health or substance use disorders. The side event discussed strategies for addressing these issues, which are outlined in a policy brief Integration Across the Life Course: Bridging Non-Communicable Diseases and Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health.
Looking Ahead
These milestones underscore a shared truth: the WCAH agenda is both fragile and formidable. Fragile, because hard-won gains can be reversed by conflict, misinformation and shrinking aid. Formidable, because our community has shown extraordinary resilience and creativity in mobilising domestic resources, demanding accountability, and forging new alliances.
As we continue the road beyond UNGA, let us carry forward the urgency and unity witnessed this month. October will be a busy month it will feature the Inter-Parliamentary Union annual gathering, the FIGO conference, the Conference for Public Health in Africa, the World Health Summit and other key spaces for sharing experiences and information on how to improve women’s children’s and adolescent health. PMNCH will also be leading on a range of capacity building webinars on media advocacy and communications. Read below for information on how to join.
With appreciation and resolve,
Rajat Khosla
Executive Director, PMNCH