title: Advancing social and economic development by investing in women's and children's health: a new Global Investment Framework.
abstract: A new Global Investment Framework for Women's and Children's Health demonstrates how investment in women's and children's health will secure high health, social, and economic returns. We costed health systems strengthening and six investment packages for: maternal and newborn health, child health, immunisation, family planning, HIV/AIDS, and malaria. Nutrition is a cross-cutting theme. We then used simulation modelling to estimate the health and socioeconomic returns of these investments. Increasing health expenditure by just $5 per person per year up to 2035 in 74 high-burden countries could yield up to nine times that value in economic and social benefits. These returns include greater gross domestic product (GDP) growth through improved productivity, and prevention of the needless deaths of 147 million children, 32 million stillbirths, and 5 million women by 2035. These gains could be achieved by an additional investment of $30 billion per year, equivalent to a 2% increase above current spending.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Systems Financing, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: stenbergk@who.int.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stenberg
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Axelson
authors.affiliation: Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheehan
authors.affiliation: Independent Consultant, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A Metin
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gülmezoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Temmerman
authors.affiliation: Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.affiliation: UN Population Fund, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Howard S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.affiliation: SickKids Center for Global Child Health, Toronto, ON, Canada; Center of Excellence in Women & Child Health, The Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Zulfiqar A
authors.initials: ZA
authors.lastname: Bhutta
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Joy E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lawn
authors.affiliation: Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sweeny
authors.affiliation: Indendent Consultant, Cali, Colombia.
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tulloch
authors.affiliation: The GAVI Alliance, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Health Section, UNICEF, UN Plaza, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Mickey
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chopra
authors.affiliation: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, India.
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Joshua P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Vogel
authors.affiliation: Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ostergren
authors.affiliation: Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.affiliation: The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, hosted by the World Health Organization, Canada.
authors.forename: Shyama
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuruvilla
authors.affiliation: US Agency for International Development, Washington DC, USA.
authors.forename: Marjorie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koblinsky
authors.affiliation: Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Neff
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, hosted by the World Health Organization, Canada.
authors.forename: Andres
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Francisco
authors.affiliation: The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, hosted by the World Health Organization, Canada.
authors.forename: Nebojsa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Novcic
authors.affiliation: The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, hosted by the World Health Organization, Canada.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Presern
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jamison
authors.affiliation: Family, Women's and Children's Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Flavia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bustreo
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D046688:Child Mortality; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D057217:Economic Development; D005260:Female; D014943:Global Health; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007449:Investments; D008297:Male; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D016387:Women's Health