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 Australia's assistance for health.
World Bank Group: ‘Advance UHC’ trust fund
$76.7 million (2015-2026)
Established in 2015, Advance UHC is a multi-donor trust fund instigated by DFAT and managed by the World Bank. It has supported 15 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, Cambodia, Philippines, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu 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 Phase II
$42.5 million (2023-27)
The $42.5 million Transformative Agenda Phase II, delivered through UNFPA, is a partnership with nine 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 builds on the successes of Transformative Agenda Phase I and works in Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The Transformative Agenda Phase II 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*
| Name of document | Year published | Type |
|---|---|---|
| A Transformative Agenda for women, adolescents and youth in the Pacific: Towards zero unmet need for family planning | 2018 | Programme |
| A Transformative Agenda for Women, Adolescents and Youth in the Pacific: Towards Zero Unmet Need for Family Planning - mid-term review and management response | 2020/2021 | Mid Term Review and Management Response |
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.
Global Fund 'Set Aside' Activities
Australia 'sets aside' a percentage of its contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for investments in our region that support the Global Fund's objectives.
For Australia's current Global Fund Pledge, ten per cent ($26.6 million) has been set aside for investments including:
Indo-Pacific HIV Partnership
$12.0 million (2024-28)
This investment with UNAIDS and Health Equity Matters is strengthening HIV programs in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Indonesia.
UNAIDS is focusing on gender-responsive and stigma-free policy and legal environments to strengthen evidence-based decision-making. It is increasing the sustainability, efficiency and equity of financing mechanisms for HIV programmes, including through increased domestic resources for key populations and community-led responses.
Health Equity Matters is strengthening the capacity of key populations in their vital role in the AIDS response, by enhancing the leadership, governance, stewardship, and advocacy capabilities of Papua New Guinea's Key Population Advocacy Consortium and Fiji's Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network.
Respond
$11.0 million (2024-28)
With the Menzies School of Health Research, the Respond program works with partner countries to build capacity for health systems to anticipate, prevent, detect and control priority disease threats. It accomplishes this through establishing One Health surveillance hubs, strengthening laboratory systems and disease surveillance/modelling, optimising case management, and tracking the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. The program focuses on work in Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Malaysia.
ActUp
$5.0 million (2024-28)
With the Kirby Institute, this investment strengthens and expands previous work in Papua New Guinea to advance the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B (triple elimination), through support for strategies that include diagnosis, care and treatment of infected mothers and children, and community-based screening for pregnant women not attending antenatal care.
Indo-Pacific HIV Prevention Programme
$11.77 million (2021-2024)
Funded from Australia's previous set aside (2020-22) , this regional investment with UNAIDS and working with civil society and national partners in Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines, is supporting efforts to increase uptake and access to HIV prevention and testing services for key populations. This will complement work at the regional level, including regional advocacy and support to key population networks.
Integrated Laboratory Support for High- Impact Infectious Diseases in the Indo-Pacific Region
$5.2 million (2021-2024)
Funded from Australia's previous set aside (2020-22) 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 in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Papua New Guinea, while also improving clinical and public health outcomes.
Strengthening Malaria, TB, COVID-19, HIV diagnosis in Timor-Leste (MATCH TL)
$5.4 million (2021-2024)
Funded from Australia's previous set aside (2020-22), this investment led by the Menzies School of Health Research 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 link
Related document*
| Name of document | Year published | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Review of DFAT’s Health advisory services – Specialist Health Service and DFAT management response | 2021 | Review and management response |
* The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is committed to high standards of transparency and accountability in the management of the Australian aid program through publishing information on our website, including policies, plans, results, evaluations and research. Our practice is to publish documents after the partner government and any other partners directly involved in the delivery of the initiative have been consulted. Not all material published on this site is created by the Australian aid program and therefore not all documents reflect our views. In limited circumstances some information may be withheld for reasons including privacy and commercial sensitivity