Funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is needed now more than ever, says Save the Children, as donors, public and private partners and civil society meet tomorrow at Gavi's High-Level Pledging Summit. The summit seeks to raise at least US$ 9 billion from donors to protect 500 million children and save at least 8 million lives from 2026–2030.
Save the Children CEO Inger Ashing said:
“In a world beset by bad news, vaccines have been a shining light of hope and human progress. For more than two centuries, scientists, doctors and communities have built on knowledge and experience to help children and adults live longer and better lives. In the past 50 years, vaccines have already saved more than 154 million people and substantially reduced the global burden of infectious diseases. It’s public health’s best buy – with proven results. Yet this incredible work is under serious threat.
“This week leaders are meeting to decide how much to fund Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Save the Children joins more than 150 organizations around the world calling for an urgent and deeply needed injection of funds for its critical work.
“Gavi has been one of the most effective investments in public health in modern history. In the last 25 years, the alliance has helped immunise more than a billion children. Gavi supports the rollout of vaccines for everything from measles to polio to Ebola and is playing a crucial role in rolling out the first malaria vaccine. In doing so, it not only saves lives but builds up national health systems, strengthens pandemic preparedness and helps protect us all from the spread of infectious disease.
“At Save the Children, we’re working with national governments and local communities – for example in Malawi where a recent cholera outbreak killed more than 1,700 people – to make sure children are protected from deadly and debilitating illness. With our private sector partner GSK, we are targeting millions of ‘zero-dose’ children - those who are completely unvaccinated - in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
