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Former Board Members
Foundations
Formerly represented on the GAVI Board by
The UN Foundation
Board member: Tim Wirth, President
Term of office: July 2001 to June 2003
UNF has been actively defining how to most effectively spend a part of its resources – approximately $20 million a year – to benefit the neediest children. UNF's focus is based on the UN's goals and priorities, particularly the Plan of Action from the 1990 World Summit for Children.
UNF’s involvement in GAVI contributes to its following priority areas within children's health:
Decreasing Child Mortality
Child survival continues to provide the foundation for developmental work that benefits children. The survival of children has been associated with subsequent important societal changes. Such changes include, for example, reductions in family size which provides opportunities for increased economic prosperity.
New approaches to delivering preventive public health interventions
New approaches are needed to deliver preventive public health interventions that will save the lives of children. For example, many children die of preventable diseases because they live beyond the reach of public health services that provide vaccines and other interventions. Creative new means – such as the Sustainable Outreach Services (SOS) – must be used to increase children's access to such preventive services. SOS is a joint effort by WHO and UNICEF that combines innovation in both the process by which children are reached and the preventive services that are delivered. UNF seeks to support well-founded, new, and innovative processes to reach those who lack access to preventive public health interventions, often the poorest of the poor.
Polio Eradication: Strengthening the public health infrastructure for infectious diseases
UNF support for polio eradication can make a lasting contribution to humanity by helping rid the world's children of a terrible disease forever. UNF is considering a partnership with Rotary International to raise substantial resources from the private sector for the eradication efforts. In addition, UNF will commit targeted financial support to polio eradication efforts, particularly in the context of strengthening the pubic health infrastructure, including surveillance and capacity building.
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