Report will set the development agenda after 2015

Morogoro_Tanzania.jpg

Immunisation session in Morogoro region, Tanzania
Photo credit: GAVI/2012/Sala Lewis

Geneva, 30 May 2013 – Following the publication of the report of the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, said:

“I am very encouraged to see that the High Level Panel has underlined the value of vaccines and called for a target to increase the number of people fully vaccinated.

“I firmly believe that all people should have access to immunisation no matter where in the world they live. The GAVI Alliance is working with the world’s poorest countries to help them to introduce vaccines against major killer diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and cervical cancer.

“The Millennium Development Goals have catalysed extraordinary progress – and financial support – in many areas of global health. But much remains to be done:  for example, 22 million children go unimmunised each year.

“I am pleased to note that the Panel references the importance of a partnership approach in tackling development issues.”

The Panel Report includes the following statements:

  • ‘Investing more in health, especially in health promotion and disease prevention, like vaccinations, is a smart strategy to empower people and build stronger societies and economies.’ (page  38)    
  • ‘All should be vaccinated against major diseases.’ (page 15)
  • ‘Expanded childhood immunization improves health in later life, with benefits worth twenty times the cost.’ (page 6)

Under illustrative goal 4 ‘Ensure Healthy Lives’, the Panel calls for:

An ‘end preventable infant and under-5 deaths’

and to

‘Increase by x% the proportion of children, adolescents, at-risk adults and older people that are fully vaccinated.’ (page 30)

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