Health
Health is a prerequisite for development
Access to health - only a dream for many people. Source: KfW Photo Archive / Mika Schmidt
Around the world, some 10,000 infants die each day from malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrhoea or childhood diseases that could easily be prevented by vaccines. The poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia account for 90 per cent of the victims.
In order to improve access to health services, the international community of nations has applied to the health sector three of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are to be achieved by 2015: reduce under-five mortality (MDG 4), improve maternal health (MDG 5) and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG 6).
Improving Maternal and Child Health Is a Priority
On behalf of the German Government, KfW Entwicklungsbank supports developing countries in improving the living conditions of their people. The activities jointly carried out with the partner countries focus on improving people's access to healthcare and health service quality on a sustainable basis. The health sector is a priority area of development cooperation in 16 partner countries. Additionally, health activities are being conducted in almost 40 countries. Currently more than 1.3 billion euros is being allocated for the promotion of the health sector.
The areas supported range from healthcare financing and infrastructure through disease prevention and improvement of sexual and productive health. Improving sexual and reproductive health is a priority area. This ranges from safe motherhood and medically assisted births to rights based family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and the diagnosis and treatment of other sexually transmitted diseases.
Collaborating With Partners
KfW Entwicklungsbank collaborates closely with national and international partners in the framework of bilateral and multilateral health programmes. On the multilateral level, it cooperates with partners such as the World Bank, the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the European Union. On the bilateral level KfW works with donors such as the French development bank AfD and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and, under German Development Cooperation, with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and non-governmental organisations. It aims to achieve donor harmonisation within the meaning of the Paris Declaration and the Accra Action Plan, often by way of programme-based approaches.
Last updated: July 2011
