Saving lives through immunisation - Main contents

View from the GAVI Conference in Berlin

I have just taken part in a conference organised in Berlin by the GAVI. GAVI is public-private partnership focused on increasing access to immunisation in poor countries. Since 2000, they have immunised half a billion children in poor countries which saved the life of some 8 million children. The conference aimed to generate $7.5 billion in order to immunise another 300 million children until 2020. This can save another 5 to 6 million children. Thanks to additional efforts by many donors, including the Commission, an impressive total of $7.359 billion (ca. €6.6 million) have been raised.

I’m proud to say that the EU has shown to be ready to play its part. We will contribute €200 million to the GAVI Alliance for the 2016-2020 period, more than double the amount that the EU has committed to GAVI so far.

More than 1.5 million people still die from diseases every 1.5 year which are fully preventable. A simple vaccine could put an end to this tragic loss of human lives. That is why support for immunisation systems is a key aspect of the broader health support we offer through our EU development policy.

Children who are poor, live in rural areas, and have mothers with little education continue to miss out. Reaching those children will be a top priority over the next five years. The Commission is a long-standing supporter of GAVI because we believe in their model of shared responsibility for financing modern vaccines fairly between donor and partner countries, focusing resources on those countries that need it the most.

Our support for organisations like GAVI complements the key support we give to health systems in our partner countries, supporting them to strengthen the entire spectrum of health services they provide. EU funding may, for instance, support building and rehabilitating health care facilities, training of health personnel, providing equipment, essential medicines and supplies, as well as providing technical assistance and policy advice to governments. The recent Ebola outbreak has shown that infectious disease control is not possible without basic health systems in place and this has received the appropriate response by the EU.

Until access to basic health services is possible for all people, whatever progress we have made is not enough. Health is the key to a functioning and fair world. And thanks to GAVI’s work and all the donors’ support that I witnessed and that has been confirmed in this week’s conference, we have taken a big step towards a healthier world tomorrow.