Countries pledge $4.3bn to save children's lives

IN a massive boost in the fight against childhood diseases Australia will invest in $200 million over three years to support GAVI in it's efforts to help vaccinate children against preventable diseases.

RESULTS National Manager Maree Nutt attended the GAVI pledging conference hosted by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The meeting convened ministers, leaders of UN agencies, private sector and senior civil society leaders from around the globe to make commitments to support GAVI's life-saving work.

The Australian Government made a commitment to ensure that over seven million children receive life saving vaccines through its pledge of $200 million over three years.

Read RESULTS' media release HERE.

Countries have pledged an unprecedented $4.3bn (£2.6bn) to help vaccinate children against preventable diseases like pneumonia.

The Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation says this funding milestone will save more than four million lives in the next four years.

The donations exceeded expectations - GAVI asked for $3.7bn.

The UK promised $1.3bn, and Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates said he would give $1bn to the campaign.

What Kevin Rudd said at the pledging conference:

Speaking at the opening of the GAVI 'Saving Children's Lives' conference in London, Mr Rudd said routine immunisation for preventable diseases is one of the most proven and cost-effective ways to save lives.

'Each year, rotavirus-related diarrheal disease alone takes the lives of more than half a million children under five years of age and is responsible for the hospitalisation of millions more.

'GAVI has achieved outstanding results in the past decade, immunising more than 288 million children in the developing world to help them survive into adulthood.

'Our increased support, along with other donors' pledges, is estimated to help GAVI save a further four million lives by 2015,' said Mr Rudd.


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Rudd and Gates back vaccines for poor countries

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2011 GAVI Alliance Pledging Conference: Making the case for vaccines

ON Monday, June 13, RESULTS International (Australia) will be represented by its National Manager, Maree Nutt at the 2011 GAVI Alliance Pledging Conference.

In Australia, on average less than five children in every 1000 births die before they reach their fifth birthday. In the developing world, such as Sierra Leone for example, 163 out of 1000 babies die needlessly each year. Most of these deaths are preventable, purely because they haven't been inoculated from the curable diseases of pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is to deliver a welcome speech on Sunday at the opening of the Saving Children's Lives conference in London, organised by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).

It is estimated that some 500,000 children die each year from diarrhoea-related diseases, and while GAVI says the new vaccine will not provide a solution, it has the potential to save many lives.

Australia has already committed $A90 million directly to GAVI for 2006 to 2013, and made a further $A250 million commitment over 20 years through the alliance's investment branch, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation.

The facility is also supported by the governments of France, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, along with private sponsorships from organisations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

And this: 

Australia's commitment to curb global infant death rates will be tested this month when Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd faces requests for a fresh wave of funding...

...The $474 million allocation is equal to 0.35 per cent of gross national income (GNI) and Mr Rudd has said the government is committed to boosting that to 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015/16.

While the majority of GAVI funding comes from the governments of developed nations, private groups such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also contribute.

Mr Rudd's welcome speech will be delivered alongside that by a Gates Foundation representative.

To keep up on the developments on the GAVI's 'Saving Children's lives' conference follow this blog.

No problem so great it cannot be solved

For Noble Peace laureate Desmond Tutu in today's National Times, 'World hunger is man-made and only we can end it' (2/6/2011), hunger is not a natural problem, it is a man-made tragedy.

Yet a lifetime of experience has taught me that there is no problem so great it cannot be solved, no injustice so deeply entrenched it cannot be overcome. And that includes hunger.

Hunger is not a natural phenomenon. It is a man-made tragedy. People do not go hungry because there is not enough food to eat. They go hungry because the system that delivers food from the fields to our plates is broken. And now in this new age of crisis — with increasingly severe and extreme weather and dwindling natural resources – feeding the world will get harder still.

But the future is not set – it is ours to shape. For example this week Oxfam launched its new global Grow campaign for a world without hunger. This is not based on the utopian musing of do-gooders and day dreamers. It is a very real plan based on the real achievements of forward thinking governments, companies and communities – for example the government and people of Brazil who together cut the number of hungry people by a half in just 15 years.

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