GAVI Alliance contributes US$139 million to UN Foundation to tackle measles

The United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation) announced today that it has received a US$139 million contribution from the GAVI Alliance to support the worldwide effort by the Measles Initiative to reduce measles deaths by 90 percent by 2010.

This is GAVI's second contribution to the Measles Initiative, a public- private partnership that recently announced an unprecedented decline in measles deaths in Africa.

"The United Nations Foundation -- and everyone who cares about the health of children around the world -- is grateful for GAVI's support of the Measles Initiative. The Measles Initiative and GAVI are two of the most successful global health initiatives in recent years," said Timothy E. Wirth, President of the UN Foundation. "Together we are demonstrating what can be accomplished when the public and private sectors work together to solve major global issues."

Last month the Measles Initiative announced that measles mortality had been reduced by 60 percent between 1999 and 2005. "GAVI's new support, generated from a new financing initiative, is a major 'shot in the arm' for the global effort to reduce measles deaths by 90 percent by 2010," Wirth added.

"Vaccines are a best buy in health, as demonstrated by the dramatic drop in measles-related deaths we have recently witnessed," said Julian Lob-Levyt, Executive Secretary of the GAVI Alliance. "We will invest the resources it takes to save children from deadly diseases such as measles, working together with partners such as the UN Foundation and the Measles Initiative," Lob-Levyt continued. "Long-term commitments and partnerships of this kind are crucial if we are to reach the Millennium Development Goals on health," he concluded.

GAVI's US$139 million contribution to the Measles Initiative is made possible by an innovative new initiative known as the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm). IFFIm has been designed to accelerate the availability of funds to be used for health and immunization programs in 70 of the world's poorest countries. The Measles Initiative is one of the first programs to benefit from IFFIm funding. "The IFFIm was designed to accelerate availability of resources for priority immunization programs. The Measles Initiative presents a particularly strong case for this significant investment, and we are very pleased that priority measles campaigns will receive a significant boost as a result of this contribution," said Alan Gillespie, Chair of the IFFIm Board.

Measles deaths have fallen by 60 percent worldwide since 1999 -- a major public health success. This exceeds the United Nations goal to cut measles deaths in half between 1999 and 2005.

The Measles Initiative is a long-term partnership between the American Red Cross, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the UN Foundation, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). Recent data from the WHO, released at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, also showed that support from GAVI and the Measles Initiative partners had helped increase overall immunization rates in poor countries to an all-time high, 77 percent in 2006 from 63 percent in 1999.

More than 360 million children were vaccinated between 2000 and 2005 as a result of Measles Initiative campaigns. The US$139 million GAVI contribution to the UN Foundation will help expand the Measles Initiative's global efforts over the next four years. In 2007, planned measles campaigns are expected to reach 195 million children in at least 32 countries; in 2008, campaigns will target 79.4 million children in at least 14 countries.

Measles vaccination campaigns are also contributing to the reduction of child deaths from other causes. They have become a channel for the delivery of other life-saving interventions, such as bed nets to protect against malaria, de-worming medicine and vitamin A supplements. Combining measles immunization with other health interventions is a contribution towards achieving Millennium Development Goal Number 4: a two-thirds reduction in child deaths between 1990 and 2015.

http://www.unfoundation.org/ and http://www.gavialliance.org/