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GAVI Alliance CEO Seth Berkley addresses Canada’s summit on maternal, newborn and child health. GAVI/2014/Pascal Barollier
Toronto, Canada, 29 May 2014 – Immunisation took centre stage this week at a global summit on maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) organised by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and featuring GAVI Alliance CEO Dr Seth Berkley.
The summit, “Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm’s Reach,” was convened by Harper to help ensure that MNCH remains a global priority after the 2015 deadline for the UN Millennium Development Goals. The summit builds on the Muskoka Initiative spearheaded by Harper at the G8 meeting in 2010 to help save the lives of 1.3 million children and 64,000 mothers.
“End the tragedy of women and children dying needlessly from causes we can prevent,” Harper said in his welcome statement.
The Prime Minister called on countries to invest politically and financially in immunisation, health system strengthening, data quality and nutrition -- each critical to achieving Canada's top development priority of reducing preventable deaths in developing countries.
Funding for immunisation
Every second, somewhere in the world, 30 children are immunised.
No other intervention touches so many lives.
GAVI Alliance CEO, Dr Seth Berkley
Canada’s commitment was backed by a pledge to invest C$3.5 billion (about US$ 3.2 billion) between 2015-2020 in three MNCH priority areas: strengthening health systems, improving nutrition and reducing the burden of leading diseases, which Harper said includes stepping up child immunisation
In his address, Berkley emphasised that vaccines are among the most cost-effective ways of advancing maternal, newborn and child health. “Every second, somewhere in the world, 30 children are immunised,” he said. “No other intervention touches so many lives.”
Since 1990, under-5 mortality has been nearly halved – from 12.6 million to 6.6 million – while maternal deaths have fallen by nearly 50%, from 543,000 to 289,000.
It is no coincidence, noted Berkley, that this drop in child mortality occurred concurrently with significant increases in global immunisation coverage in poor countries. Worldwide, 83% of children now receive routine immunisation, such as a full course of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccines compared with about 60% at the start of the 1990s.
However, Berkley warned that 1.5 million children are still dying from vaccine-preventable diseases each year with only 5% of children receiving all 11 of the vaccines recommended by WHO. "We need a global reset of the ambition,” he declared.
Bold, innovative partnerships
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (left) and Jakaya M. Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania (right) as they attend the MNCH Summit in Toronto.GAVI/2014/Pascal Barollier
The need for “bold new and innovative partnerships” was also cited by Harper as a key factor in MNCH success, and the summit included speakers from several public-private partnerships, alongside the GAVI Alliance.
Canada has shown a strong commitment to public-private partnerships, investing about C$500 million in the GAVI Alliance since 2002. This includes support for the Advance Market Commitment, which has worked with pharmaceutical suppliers and government donors like Canada to reduce the price of the pneumococcal vaccine by 95%.
The summit included several speakers from organisations and countries that are members of the GAVI Alliance, including Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete; ministers of health from GAVI Alliance implementing countries Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal, the latter represented by GAVI Alliance Board member Dr. Awa Marie Coll Seck; WHO Director-General Margaret Chan; UNICEF Executive Director Tony Lake; World Bank President Jim Kim; Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; US AID Administrator Rajiv Shah; Children’s Investment Fund Foundation CEO Michael Anderson; and Sanofi Pasteur President Mark Lievonen.
“Immunisation is one of the best investments we can make in the future,” Melinda Gates said during the summit keynote speech. “The GAVI Alliance – the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation – has the support of countries like yours. More and more children are alive and healthy, able to live to their full potential.”