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PRESS
RELEASE
20th June
2002
Awards from
GAVI and the Vaccine Fund reach nearly $1 billion
Two-year old
initiative has reached 80% of eligible countriesParis, France – Meeting
in Paris at the Pasteur Institute on 19th and 20th June, the board of
the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) assessed its
activities after over 2 years of existence and approved a new round of
funding awards from the Vaccine Fund to 6 new applicant countries.
GAVI was
formed at the end of 1999 as a public-private partnership focused on
increasing children's access to vaccines in developing countries at a
time when immunization levels were dropping in many countries and some
preventable diseases were making a comeback. To help meet GAVI’s
immunization goals, The Vaccine Fund was created as a financing
mechanism designed to raise new financial resources and make them
available to strengthen infrastructure, help introduce new and
under-used vaccines and provide safe injection equipment for all
vaccines given according to the standard immunization schedule. Carol
Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF and Chair of the GAVI board
underlined the fact that “this new approach has been very positively
received by both developing and donor countries as a valuable catalyst
to support global immunization efforts”.
Over the
last 2 years, 66 out of the 75 countries eligible for GAVI support
(those with a per capita GNP of less than $1000) have submitted
proposals indicating their planned campaigns and needs in terms of
immunization. The Vaccine Fund has already committed $ 830 million over
5 years to 54 countries in immunization programs financing.
The approval
of the proposals submitted by Bosnia Herzegovina, Comoros, The
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of
Korea and Somalia now brings to 60 out of 75 eligible countries the
number of countries supported by the Alliance and the financial
commitments of the Vaccine Funds to nearly 1 billion over 5
years.Jacques François Martin, President of the Vaccine Fund,
reemphasized the initiative’s results on the ground, after only a little
over two years of existence. In that short time span, the Vaccine Fund
has been able to “bring financial support to 80% of eligible countries”.
He added that “though there is still much to be done, especially with
respect to fundraising to ensure the sustainability of our efforts, we
are very encouraged by the results already achieved”.
Partners in
the Alliance include national governments from developing and
industrialized countries, UNICEF, WHO, The World Bank Group, the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and other foundations, the vaccine industry,
research and public health institutions and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs).
The Paris
meeting was chaired by Carol Bellamy, and was attended by Dr. Daniel
Tarantola, Special Adviser to the Director-General of WHO and Director,
Vaccines and Biologicals, WHO, by Pr. Philippe Kourilsky, Director
General, Institut Pasteur, by Dr. C. P. Thakur, Minister of Health and
Family Welfare, India, by James Christopher Lovelace, Director, Health
Nutrition and Population, The World Bank, by Richard Klausner, Executive
Director of Global Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, by Jacques
François Martin, President of the Vaccine Fund, and representatives from
the vaccine industry, NGOs, public health institutions and donor
governments.
“GAVI’s
actions are absolutely essential for public health issues in the world.
Immunization is the easiest, most efficient and most cost effective mean
to save millions of human lives every year. By providing protection to
populations at risk, immunization also reduces the danger of diseases
spreading to other populations and regions. It is the Pasteur
Institute’s duty, as it is for other similar institutions, to intensify
their research programs to improve current vaccines and develop new
ones” stated Professor Philippe Kourilsky, Director General of the
Pasteur Institute and host of the meeting.
On June
18th, before the start of the GAVI board meeting, the Pasteur Institute
representative of the research institutions to the GAVI board held a
meeting with over 20 such institutions around the world to discuss new
research agendas.
It was
agreed to regularly organize such meetings to accompany GAVI’s efforts,
in particular by promoting international vaccine research actions to
address neglected diseases, which strike millions of people throughout
the world, but do not offer a commercially viable market.
Contacts:
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Farnaz
Khadem, Fonds Mondial pour les Vaccins Phone: +33.6.86.43.08.91.
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Heidi
Larson, UNICEF Phone: +1.646.207.51.79
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Philippe
Maze-Sencier, APCO France Phone: +33.1.44.94.86.66.
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