GAVI and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding “to help save children’s lives by accelerating the introduction of life-saving vaccines in IDB member countries.” According to the MoU signed between Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali, Chairman, IDB Group, and Dr Seth Berkley, CEO, GAVI, the IDB “will work closely with GAVI to help secure sufficient funds for immunisation. By 2020, GAVI plans to vaccinate more than 400 million children in at least 29 member countries with the objective of preventing 3.2 million deaths. An estimated US$ 7 billion will be required to reach this target. GAVI CEO Dr Seth Berkley said, “We are joining hands with the IDB to accelerate the introduction of life-saving vaccines in IDB member countries and ensure that children have a healthy start in life. We also aim to increase the uptake of new and underused vaccines in these countries and hopefully generate new sources of funding.”

Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali stated that “promoting health is among the major strategic thrusts of the Vision 1440H (2020) of the IDB Group and that it was happy to enter into a cooperation agreement with GAVI to save the lives of millions of children in member countries, thereby playing a major role against child mortality. He mentioned that in the initial stage, IDB will try to support the governments of selected member countries to implement the vaccination programme through its “triple win financing model” in which it will seek collaboration with other partners while also providing the recipient countries the opportunity to contribute a portion of the cost along with IDB.”

11 March 2013 – http://www.gavialliance.org/library/news/press-releases/2013/islamic-development-bank-partners-with-gavi-to-save-children-s-lives-with-vaccines/