GAVI Watch [to 24 May 2014]
http://www.gavialliance.org/library/news/press-releases/

:: Press Release: GAVI Alliance sets out opportunity to save up to six million lives through immunisation
Fully funded Alliance programmes would enable developing countries to protect a further 300 million children with vaccines by 2020
[Excerpt, Editor’s text bolding]
Brussels, 20 May 2014 – The GAVI Alliance today called on donors to back ambitious plans to immunise an additional 300 million children against potentially fatal diseases between 2016 and 2020 and save a further five to six million lives.

By investing together in a healthy future, Alliance partners can build on the unprecedented success which has put developing countries on track to immunise close to half a billion additional children between 2000 and 2015, saving approximately six million lives. Additional investments for the 2016-2020 period could double the total number of lives saved through GAVI-supported vaccines since 2000.

An acceleration is necessary because, despite an unprecedented increase in vaccine programmes in developing countries, 1.5 million children die each year of vaccine-preventable diseases and one in five children worldwide do not receive a full course of even the most basic vaccines.

The GAVI Alliance today set out an investment case that demonstrates how donors can support the world’s poorest countries to secure and expand their immunisation programmes, which protect children against illnesses such as pneumococcal disease and rotavirus, the leading vaccine-preventable causes of pneumonia and diarrhoea, between 2016 and 2020.

The economic benefits of fully funded, sustainable vaccine programmes would result in US $80 to $100 billion in gains for developing countries through increased productivity and reductions in the cost of treating illnesses that would have been prevented through immunisation.

As GAVI-supported countries grow more prosperous, they can assume greater responsibility for their immunisation programmes. Between 2011 and 2015, countries have contributed approximately US$ 470 million. This will grow to US$ 1.2 billion in the 2016-20 period, making developing countries one of the largest contributors to the Alliance. By 2020, it is projected that 22 countries will have graduated and taken over full financing of their GAVI-supported vaccines, marking a new era of increased sustainability…

…The overwhelming benefits of investing in the Alliance were set out at a meeting hosted today in Brussels by European Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. The meeting was opened with a keynote speech from José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, who demonstrated the EU’s long-term commitment to supporting the GAVI Alliance to save lives through immunisation by pledging an additional €175 million for the period 2014-2020…

…The GAVI Alliance is today asking donors to invest an additional US$ 7.5 billion to support developing countries’ immunisation programmes from 2016 to 2020. These commitments would be added to the US$ 2 billion already available to GAVI for the period to ensure that Alliance-supported programmes are fully funded up to 2020…
:: Statement: Germany to host key GAVI Alliance replenishment event