Around a billion children globally live in poverty, lacking access to food, water, education, healthcare, or safe housing. Since its founding, CIFF has been privileged to work with exceptional partners on innovative programmes to help children across the world, but it often remains a challenge to reach the most vulnerable children who are in the greatest need.

From 2020, CIFF has been investing alongside other funding partners in the Child Nutrition Fund with UNICEF, a global effort to accelerate the scale-up of government-led prevention and treatment of severe forms of malnutrition in Ethiopia and 22 other countries.

In Ethiopia, internally displaced communities and other hard-to-reach populations are where we see the highest concentration of malnourished children. It is also where we see the highest proportion of zero-dose children – those who have not received a single dose of routine vaccines.

Recognising this, the Ethiopian government has called for the integration of essential nutrition and immunisation services. Whether it is remote communities living out of reach of healthcare centres, or displaced families without stable homes, reaching the last 10% of the population can be extremely difficult.

By joining forces to integrate services usually delivered separately, we can improve the efficiency of services, lowering the cost of reaching that last 10%, and succeed in delivering more for those children most in need. 

CIFF is very proud to be working with Gavi Match Fund on a new $30m partnership, in response to the Ethiopian Governments call, to leverage nutrition and social protection platforms with the goal of improving nutritional and immunisation outcomes for children in Ethiopia. We are proud to be working with UNICEF, one of our long-term strategic partners, to deliver this programme through the Child Nutrition Fund.

This partnership has the potential to generate significant which could pave the way for more integrated programming across public health.

Launched at the Gavi Vaccine Impact Conference in June, read the full press release here.

“The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation is proud to partner with Gavi on this integrated approach to reduce child malnutrition and vaccine preventable diseases in Ethiopia. Together with the Ethiopian Government, UNICEF and partners, we plan to reach zero dose children and malnourished children, who suffer multiple forms of deprivation, by helping their communities access vaccination and nutrition services in a timely and integrated way, which is essential for children’s growth and development.” 

 – Anna Hakobyan, Chief Impact Office, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation

“Given the serious disruptions caused by the pandemic, this is the time to invest better and smarter, as countries gradually find ways to restore and integrate immunisation, nutrition and social protection systems. We are very proud to join forces with CIFF to reach more zero-dose children, in areas where the dual burden of malnutrition and infectious disease is among the highest in Ethiopia”

– Guillaume Grosso, Director, Sovereign & Private Sector Engagement, Donor Relations & Campaigns, GAVI

What are matching funds?

Matching funds are public-private funding mechanisms designed to incentivise investments in essential areas by doubling the investment. These funds promote collaboration and shared learnings, while splitting the cost and increasing the reach of catalytic programmes.

Read more about the Gavi Matching Fund: https://www.gavi.org/investing-gavi/innovative-financing/gavi-matching-fund

Photo from 26 April 2022 depicting a malnourished child eating ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) after being screened for malnutrition at Higlo Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) site in Ethiopia. Photo credit: UNICEF/Zerihun Sewunet