Flickr: Pete Lewis / DFID

WHAT’S THE ISSUE?

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, aims to immunise the world's poorest children against some of its deadliest killers. Since it started in 2000, Gavi has immunised nearly half a billion people and saved six million lives - but their fight isn’t over. From 2016 to 2020 they have set an ambitious target of saving another five to six million lives - equalling the last 15 years but delivering this in just five. To do this they needed the support of global citizens.

GLOBAL CITIZENS RESPOND

This year, Global Citizen has been campaigning with partner charities advocating for  the UK Government to commit to saving children's lives through vaccinations by funding Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Global Citizen UK joined forces with the One Campaign, Save the Children UK and Results UK to campaign for the UK Government to commit to spending £1.2 billion on Gavi for the 2016 strategy. In light of the UK being the biggest country donor already, we asked for £1.2 billion to help ensure Gavi reaches their total ask of $7 billion.

Global citizens from around the world took over 1000 actions to achieve this significant campaign result. Emails and Tweets, directed at both the Secretary of State for International Development and the Prime Minister, asked for the UK to continue to be a major donor for Gavi. These actions were very effective, as the Secretary of State confirmed global citizens’ tweets helped influence her decision.

WHAT’S THE IMPACT?

Through the hard work of global citizens from around the world, on 27 November 2014,  the UK government announced a commitment of up to £1 billion to help in the fight against preventable child deaths. We estimate that this commitment could affect almost 63 million children’s lives by reaching them with vaccines - and the UK government states that this commitment will save 1.4 million lives.

While this commitment of up to £1 billion is slightly under our £1.2 billion ask, it is still something global citizens can really celebrate.

WHAT’S NEXT?

For global citizens, the campaign isn’t over. We now move our attention to other countries who are yet to commit. Following some fantastic early commitments from countries like UK and Canada, we will mobilise to ensure the U.S. and Germany also make commitments to Gavi, and that when they do, these are substantial and meaningful contributions to the replenishment plan.

This is particularly important as the UK government has capped its commitment of £1 billion to a maximum of 26% of the total Gavi replenishment ask of $7.5 billion. So its really important we continue to push  this campaign in other donor countries to maximise the impact for child survival.