13 June saw an extremely significant meeting in London, co-hosted by the British Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It was especially important for children in developing countries.
On that day, an addition $4.3bn was raised to replenish the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). This will mean that GAVI can immunise more than 250 million children against deadly yet preventable diseases, and will save more than 4 million lives by 2015. GAVI is especially focusing on new vaccines to protect against the two biggest killers of children under 5 in the world: pneumonia and diarrhoea. The meeting also secured important private sector commitments towards vaccine support, including convincing vaccine manufacturers to cut significantly the cost of their vaccines (e.g. by 66% in the case of the rotavirus vaccine).
Bill Gates called the meeting “an incredible milestone”. I am proud that the United Kingdom will be the single largest donor over the next 5 years, guaranteeing $1.33bn of the total. Other significant donors include Norway, the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and France, as well as the extraordinary personal generosity of Bill Gates himself (he pledged an additional $1bn).
Too many children in the developing world still die from preventable disease. The GAVI Alliance is committed to making this a thing of the past. At a time of economic difficulty, it is vital that all countries keep their aid and development promises. The results, in this case, tell their own story.