U.S. President’s budget proposes record US$ 200 million to the GAVI Alliance

Washington, DC, 4 March 2014 – The Obama Administration has requested a record US$ 200 million in its fiscal year 2015 budget to support the GAVI Alliance in its mission to save children’s lives and protect people’s health in the world’s poorest countries by increasing access to vaccines. This is the largest amount the United States has ever requested for the Alliance.

The request demonstrates leadership by the United States, a founding donor of the GAVI Alliance, in ending vaccine-preventable deaths in developing countries in spite of a difficult budgetary environment. It comes as the GAVI Alliance prepares to outline how donor investments will enable Alliance partners to reach millions more children with protection against deadly diseases between 2016 and 2020.

“This strong support from the Obama Administration for our mission to protect the lives of children is greatly appreciated,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance. “It is a tragedy that every 20 seconds a child dies from a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine. The GAVI Alliance, with the support of our donors, is working hard to accelerate efforts to reach children with vital vaccines no matter where they live.”

Since 2000, with support from donors, including the United States, and implementing countries, the GAVI Alliance has helped save approximately six million lives by immunising an additional 440 million children. In 2011, donors committed US$ 7.4 billion to the Alliance’s work for the period 2011-2015, enabling an unprecedented acceleration of vaccine introductions. More than 60 introductions are anticipated in 2014 alone, compared to just over 150 in total between 2000 and 2012.

Since GAVI was founded in 2000, the United States through USAID has contributed more than US$ 1.2 billion dollars to immunisation through GAVI, as well as provided technical support to its implementing country partners.

Vaccines save millions of lives every year and are among the most cost-effective health interventions ever developed. They also bring wider economic benefits for communities and countries as healthy children are more likely to attend school and thereby become productive adults.

“Bold new donor commitments will enable the GAVI Alliance to accelerate progress towards reaching the 22 million children who do not complete a course of even the most basic vaccines each year.” Dr Berkley added: “We look forward to working with Congress to ensure this level of funding for the Alliance, as well as strong funding for all maternal and child health programmes.”