Sweden donates US$42m to GAVI Alliance for child immunisation in poorest
countries
14 February 2007 Geneva. The GAVI Alliance has announced that Sweden is
making a multi-year contribution to support immunisation and health systems
in the world's poorest countries. The SEK 300 million (US $42 million)
donation from the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) reflects
the country's long-term commitment to global health and poverty eradication
goals. "By the end of 2006, the partners of the GAVI Alliance have
collectively prevented the deaths of 2.3 million children. That's a
remarkable achievement by anyone's standards", said Julian Lob-Levyt,
Executive Secretary of the Alliance. "This kind of achievement would never
have been possible without the support of our long term partners such as the
Government of Sweden. We are grateful Sweden is renewing its commitment to
the GAVI Alliance based on the substantial results we have collectively
achieved to date." Sweden's SEK 300 million contribution to the GAVI
Alliance will be provided in three instalments from 2006 to 2008. This is
Sweden's sixth contribution to the Alliance and a significant increase over
early donations starting in 2001. More than 10 million children in the
developing world still die every year before reaching their fifth birthday,
and a quarter of these deaths could be prevented by use of currently
available or new vaccines. "The fight against communicable diseases in
poor nations is a high priority for Sweden as this contributes directly to
improving global health and is crucial if we are to reach the Millennium
Development Goal on reducing child mortality," said Gunilla Carlsson,
Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation. "Sweden's new
donation to the GAVI Alliance will directly contribute to reducing child
mortality by reaching poor families with vaccinations and enabling health
systems to provide better services to those most in need," noted Maria
Norrfalk, Sida's Director General.
In addition to its GAVI contribution, Sweden is also one of the lead nations
committing funds to the International Finance Facility for Immunisation
(IFFIm), an innovative financing mechanism which uses pledges of future aid
to leverage money from international capital markets to support purchases of
vaccines and improve health services in poor nations. Sweden has committed a
total of SEK 276,150,000 (US$ 27 million) to be paid to the IFFIm over the
next 15 years. Despite progress made to date in raising global
immunisation coverage, more than 27 million children still go without
life-saving vaccines every year. As a result, illnesses from preventable
diseases in developing countries are nine times higher than in the richest
countries. If the needed funds could be raised, an additional 10 million
deaths could be prevented over the next decade according to GAVI Alliance
estimates. The GAVI Alliance The GAVI Alliance consists of all
the major stakeholders in worldwide immunisation, including developing
country and donor governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF,
the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialised and developing
countries, research and technical agencies, NGOs, and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. It is estimated that more than 2.3 million early deaths
will have been prevented as a result of support by GAVI up to the end of
2006.
GAVI's efforts are critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goal on
child health, which calls for reducing childhood mortality by two-thirds by
2015. Of the more than 10 million children who die before reaching their
fifth birthday every year, 2.5 million die from diseases that could be
prevented with currently available or new vaccines.
For more information see
www.gavialliance.org/ To top
|