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Geneva, 16 March 2010 - The United Kingdom's pledge of GBP 150 million to the GAVI Alliance represents a ringing endorsement of our public-private partnership's mission to save children's lives and protect people's health by increasing access to immunisation in the poorest countries.
The announcement was made by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander MP at DFID's annual conference in London on March 11.
We very much hope that the UK's leadership will inspire other donors to support our mission. Julian Lob-Levyt, CEO, GAVI Alliance |
Millennium Development Goals
This support will help GAVI prevent 4.2 million additional future deaths from now until 2015, and make a significant contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
With GAVI's first-ever High-level Meeting on Financing Country Demand due to take place in The Hague on 25-26 March, we very much hope that the UK's leadership will inspire other donors to support our mission.
Vaccines with greatest potential
GAVI will use the UK funding, which more than doubles DFID's previous direct contributions to the Alliance, to help developing countries access vaccines with the greatest potential to achieve progress on the MDGs.
This support will include completing the introduction of the five-in-one pentavalent vaccine (against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and rolling out new vaccines which target the two biggest killers of children -- diarrhoea and pneumonia.
Assuming resources are available, GAVI forecasts that its support to developing countries will prevent approximately 200,000 deaths from diarrhoea in 41 countries and an additional 840,000 deaths from pneumococcal disease in 47 countries by 2015.
UK support
In the first 10 years of GAVI's existence, the UK has provided GBP 68.5 million for life-saving vaccines through direct contributions. In addition to this announcement, the UK has also pledged GBP 1.38 billion from 2006-2026 to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation and an additional GBP 250 million for a planned extension to the IFFIm for health systems strengthening (announced last September). The UK has also allocated US$ 485 million to the Advance Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines.