DFAT's support for regional health initiatives complements and supports our country and global health programs, improving development cooperation on priority health issues and increasing the effectiveness of our health development program. Information on some of these key activities can be found below.

Regional initiatives also include the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, and the Pacific Regional Health Program.

Indo-Pacific Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights COVID-19 Response

$54.7 million (2021-2024)

The COVID-19 pandemic has unwound development gains, with a disproportionate impact on women and girls, affecting their health, education, economic empowerment, and reversing global gains in gender equality. In the Indo-Pacific, strained health systems are diverting resources and disrupting the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services at a critical time.

The Indo-Pacific Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights COVID-19 Response (SRHR COVID-19 Surge) investment is providing a focused intervention across the Indo-Pacific to quickly accelerate the capacity of service providers and technical specialists to help address urgent unmet need for sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and information. The SRHR COVID-19 Surge investment is being delivered in 22 countries in Asia and the Pacific by UNICEF, UNFPA, MSI Asia Pacific and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. It is working to improve access to quality information and services on family planning, preventing and treating sexually transmitted diseases, and maternal and newborn health. The program will also strengthen family planning supply chain systems and data quality to improve public health responses.

Related documents*

World Bank Group: ‘Advance UHC’ trust fund

$76.7 million (2015-2025)

Established in 2015, Advance UHC is a multi-donor trust fund instigated by DFAT and managed by the World Bank. It supports 13 countries across the Indo-Pacific to work towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through strengthened health financing and health service delivery systems. This includes Indonesia, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa and Timor Leste.

Advance UHC generates and uses strong health financing analytics and knowledge-based technical assistance to drive policy dialogue, health sector reform and knowledge-sharing between countries. It also uses DFAT grant funds for co-financing to leverage and influence the design of sizeable health sector loans and grants from other agencies, including the International Development Association (IDA), Gavi, Global Fund and the Global Financing Facility.

As an increasing number of countries in the region make political commitments to UHC, DFAT's funding through Advance UHC is well positioned to support them with the practicalities of this ambition. Advance UHC is also contributing to the aid effectiveness agenda by improving donor coordination and practices.

Related links

• World Bank Multi Donor Trust Fund for Integrating Donor Finance Health Programs: Mid-term review report and Management response
• World Bank media release: Lao PDR to Improve Health and Nutrition Coverage
• World Bank media release: Lao PDR to Improve Health and Nutrition for Mothers and Children, with World Bank Support

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Transformative Agenda for Women, Youth and Adolescents in the Pacific

$30 million (2018-23)

The $30 million Transformative Agenda, delivered through UNFPA, is a partnership with six countries in the Pacific to improve access to quality sexual and reproductive health services and strengthen rights.  These services are vital to helping women and girls remain in education longer and enable them to participate equally in the economy and society. It also helps contribute to more sustainable and inclusive social and economic development.

The program works in Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The Transformative Agenda is expanding access to, and demand for, quality services, with a focus on family planning, including information and education, health worker capacity building, improved health information management, and strengthened youth-friendly and disability-inclusive services.

The program is also supporting improved policy development and regulatory frameworks by working with relevant ministries and assisting them to obtain, analyse and disseminate data to support public policy. The Transformative Agenda is complemented by Australia’s contribution to the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, which is helping to ensure essential reproductive and maternal health commodities are available across Pacific countries.

Related documents*

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Supplies Partnership

$15.25 million (2022-25)

The Supplies Program is UNFPA's flagship initiative for helping targeted countries to access a reliable supply of essential sexual, reproductive and maternal health commodities including contraceptive supplies. The 51 focus countries (under Phase 3 (2021-2030), have high maternal death rates, low rates of contraceptive use and growing unmet need for family planning. Many of these countries are crisis-affected.

UNFPA Supplies assists countries by procuring and distributing commodities as well as strengthening supply chains so that women, men and adolescent girls and boys can access a choice of contraceptives no matter where they live, and life-saving maternal health medicines are delivered to adolescents and women who need them most. UNFPA Supplies also works to assist partner countries to improve the capacity of national health systems to manage and allocate funding for commodities.

UNFPA works in all 14 Pacific countries and territories as well as PNG.

The UNFPA Supplies program is an important complementary investment to DFAT's A Transformative Agenda for Women, Adolescents and Youth in the Pacific -Towards Zero Unmet Need for Family Planning 2018-2022.

Indo-Pacific HIV Prevention Programme 2021-2023

$11.65 million (2021-2023)

A component of Australia's Global Fund set-aside for the sixth replenishment (2020-2022), this regional investment with UNAIDS seeks to strengthen HIV prevention and testing efforts in the Indo-Pacific. Through the Indo-Pacific HIV Prevention Programme, Australia is supporting efforts to increase uptake and access to HIV prevention and testing services for key populations. UNAIDS will work with civil society and national partners in Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines to: remove policy, legal and regulatory impediments to accessing quality prevention and testing services; support community organisations reach key populations; and, increase access to quality services to maximise health outcomes for key populations. This will complement work at the regional level, including regional advocacy and support to key population networks.

This investment is particularly relevant in the COVID-19 context, with the pandemic impacting on access to HIV prevention programs and testing services.

Global Fund Laboratory Strengthening Activities

These investments support and strengthen laboratory capacity for testing and diagnosis of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and COVID-19 in the Indo-Pacific region. They complement and protect Global Fund investments and are funded through Australia's Global Fund set-aside.

Integrated Laboratory Support for High- Impact Infectious Diseases in the Indo-Pacific Region During the COVID-19 Era

$5.2 million (2021-2023)

Cambodia, Lao PDR and Papua New Guinea: This investment is being led by a consortium of Australia's leading infectious disease research centres—the Kirby, Doherty, and Burnet Institutes—together with international collaborators, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics. It aims to provide higher quality and more timely testing systems for HIV, TB, malaria and COVID-19, which can be sustained and expanded as needed during surges in the COVID-19 pandemic while also improving clinical and public health outcomes. It will continue to strengthen technical partnerships between experts in Australia's world-class institutions and their regional counterparts.

Strengthening Malaria, TB, COVID-19, HIV diagnosis in Timor-Leste (MATCH TL)

$5.4 million (2021-2023)

Timor-Leste: This investment is led by the Menzies School of Health Research. It aims to strengthen the capacity of the National Health Laboratory in Timor-Leste, improve access to decentralised rapid diagnostic testing and provide contemporary epidemiological data that can be used to inform policy decisions and public health responses to malaria, TB, COVID-19 and HIV in Timor-Leste.

Specialist Health Service

Core services up to $8 million (2022-26)

Established in 2015, the goal of the Specialist Health Service (SHS) is to improve the performance of Australia's international development activities in the health sector, through contributions to health policy, strategic planning and health programming.

Now in Phase Two, the SHS enables all areas of the department, in Canberra and at Post, to quickly source health technical assistance.

This service is provided by Abt Associates Pty Ltd.

Related links

Specialist Health Service

Related documents*