New commitment will support Gavi’s goal of immunising a further 300 million children by 2020

Italy signing

Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani, Director General for Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (seated left) and Marie-Ange Saraka Yao, Managing Director, Resource Mobilisation and Private Sector Partnerships, Gavi, during the signing. Credit: Gavi/2016.

Rome, 1 December 2016 – The Government of Italy confirmed today an additional contribution of 100 million euros to help Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, achieve its mission of immunising 300 million of the world’s poorest children by 2020.

“We are very grateful for the Italian government’s support. It will contribute to building sustainable immunisation programmes as well as strengthening health systems that will benefit children for generations to come,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, “Italy has been a Gavi partner for more than 10 years and is the largest donor to the Advanced Market Commitment for pneumococcal vaccines, which protect against the primary cause of bacterial pneumonia.”

The signed agreement brings Italy’s total contribution to Gavi for the 2016 to 2020 period to almost 384 million euros and underlines the Government’s status as a key donor and partner of the Vaccine Alliance.

“By signing the contribution agreement today, Italy has confirmed its additional direct contribution of 100 million euro in five years to support Gavi’s core activities,” said Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani, Director General for Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

“This is another important sign of the priority that Italy, which next year will also assume the G7 Presidency, assigns to the issue of global health.  The Italian Government’s support for Gavi’s activities on vaccination and immunisation will help save millions of lives, especially children, in developing countries.

Since 2000, Gavi has helped immunise more than half a billion children in the 73 poorest countries in the world, preventing more than 8 million future deaths. At the Gavi Pledging Conference in January 2015, donors pledged US$ 7.5 billion to support the Vaccine Alliance’s 2016-2020 mission.

 

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