Launched ahead of the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment, the Africa Frontline First Initiative Catalytic Fund seeks to mobilize at least US$100 million to accelerate the scale up of community health services in up to 10 African countries.

In August 2022, the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and the Skoll Foundation pledged US$25 million to the AFF-CF, making it the first two investments to the Fund. The Global Fund intends to match these and other investments to bolster support to, and domestic financing for, community health workers.

More than 85% of community health workers in Africa, the majority of whom are women, are not paid for their work. Experience shows that professional community health workers – who are paid, trained, and supervised – are best equipped to provide essential health services in their communities, even amid great challenges. Investing in community health workers can generate a return of up to 10:1 when considering the improved economic, health, and social outcomes of community health workers.

As such, this investment is expected to improve community health systems that provide essential medical care for up to 130 million people, and ensure that women, who make up the large proportion of community health workers, are paid for their work. The Catalytic Fund will combine coordinated technical assistance and implementation funding, as well as investments to scale financing, employ digital tools, increase the availability of essential life-saving commodities, and better integrate community health workers within the overall health system.

The Global Fund Catalytic Fund approach has already shown the power of leveraging philanthropic funding. For example, support from the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation for HIV self-testing has increased funding fivefold in two years and increased HIV self-test procurement from thousands to millions in the five countries where it works.

This catalytic investment is a first step towards a broader shared ambition to scale community health, contributing to expanding universal health coverage. As part of this effort, Africa Frontline First is collaborating with the COVID-19 Commission, which supports H.E. President Ramaphosa in his role as the African Union Champion on COVID-19. In line with the African Union’s New Public Health Order, this collaboration pursues the AU’s broader target of deploying 2 million community health workers by 2030.