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The government of Japan announced Friday that the country will provide about 1.3 million vaccines to children in developing countries, as a means to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With just over 10 years left to achieve the SDGs, also known as the Global Goals, as the 17 objectives are meant to be reached by 2030, commitments to health — and in particular vaccines — are vital.

Tokyo will commit about $4 billion in order to deliver the vaccines and to prevent 1 million deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as a sub-target of SDG 3 on good health and well-being for all is to eliminate these global epidemics.

“Japan can contribute to making a society where no one is left behind,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a meeting about the SDGs, The Japan Times reported.

Abe will be showcasing Japan’s commitments in the goals at the G20 Osaka summit next week.

The Japanese government has plans for how Japan will achieve the SDGs, and will review them at the end of the year, following various aid meetings and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which is taking place in August in Yokohama.

Further to its commitments to health, the country also plans to provide quality education to about 9 million children in developing countries by 2021, in support of SDG 4 for education, as well as build new infrastructure to alleviate impact from disasters for 5 million people by 2022, in support of SDG 9, which looks at the need for resilient infrastructure, and SDG 11, which aims to make cities and settlements safe, resilient, and sustainable.

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Japan Is Giving 1.3 Million Vaccines to Children in Developing Countries

By Jackie Marchildon