Photo: Dr. Schreiber of San Augustine giving a typhoid inoculation U.S. Office of War Information, 1944 via Wikipedia
In 2000, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, an innovative public-private partnership, was launched to deliver vaccines to children in the world's poorest countries. Its mission is to save children's lives and protect people's health by increasing access to immunization in poor countries - where 85% of the world's unvaccinated children live.
Global citizens are campaigning to enable the Gavi to immunize 300 million children between 2016-2020 - saving between 5 million and 6 million lives. Together, we’ve taken over 85,000 actions on Child Survival, particularly vaccines!
Photo: Wikicommons
At the Global Citizen Festival in September, the Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg pledged to commit at least $215 million a year over the next five years which could directly affect the lives of 34 million kids through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, by 2020. With sustained campaigning, we’re hoping Prime Minister Solberg will commit even more in January at Gavi’s replenishment conference.
And, it get’s better. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the President of Liberia appeared in a video message at the festival in representation of a coalition of African leaders, known as Immunize Africa. She reaffirmed their ongoing commitment to co-finance Gavi’s vaccination programs, with a combined commitment of US $700 million over the next five years from African leaders.
Photo: Wikicommons
For the past year, Global Citizens in Canada have been campaigning towards a bold pledge to assure every child in the world receives life-saving vaccinations. Through petition signatures, actions around the Global Citizen Festival and advocacy, you’ve joined a movement of global citizens alongside Canadian NGOs, working to see real action from the Canadian Government.
Last Friday, Canada announced a CAN $500M commitment to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Canada has been a Gavi donor country since 2002, directly contributing $236 million Gavi commitments to date. Last week’s $500 million announcement is a huge step forward towards ensuring that every child is immunized— a key step towards building a world where every child can survive and thrive.
Photo: Wikicommons
Global Citizens in the UK took over 1000 actions to put pressure on the UK Government to commit new funding for Gavi. Since it was launched in 2000, the UK has been one of the biggest supporters of Gavi, and because of all of the emails and tweets sent by Global Citizens, the UK continued this trend and pledged a whopping £1 billion for the next round of vaccinations. This is an incredible amount that will have a significant impact on the world's poorest children. The UK pledge alone means that 1.4 million lives will be saved- an amazing achievement and something that Global Citizens across the world can be proud of.
Photo: Wikicommons
In 2014, global citizens like you have done an incredible job of ensuring that governments around the world prioritize funding for vaccines globally. But, the United States Government has yet to announce their pledge.
Last month, we handed over our petition to Dr. Raj Shah who serves as the Administrator of USAID. Dr. Shah responded positively and encouraged us to continue to work with Congress to build support for vaccines worldwide.
Can we count on your support?
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Judith Rowland