PHM-Exch> Cild vaccines : best value for money

[Claudio Schuftan]

Donors were urged to support vaccination and immunisation programmes for
children in the developing world at the UN summit.

An influential group of advocates, including the leaders of two UN agencies,
has made a powerful pitch for more funding for child vaccines in the
developing world, arguing that they are the best value for money in terms of
aid.

In a side-event to the UN summit in New York on the eight millennium
development goals<http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/millennium-development-goals>
(MDG)
aimed at reducing global poverty, Margaret Chan, director general of the World
Health Organisation<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/world-health-organisation>,
joined Anthony Lake who heads Unicef, in a call for more cash for Gavi, the
Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunisation<http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/vaccines>
.

"Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective public health interventions and
one of the best buys you can get for your bucks," said Chan. "If you are not
investing in that, what are you investing in?"

Gavi had delivered vaccines to more than 250 million
children<http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/children>,
which is expected to save more than five million lives, said Chan. Appealing
to the generosity of donors, she added: "Open your purse."

The appeal to donors came yesterday at the end of the first day of the
summit, which is moving towards endorsement of the UN secretary general Ban
Ki-moon's strategy of focusing on the health of women in pregnancy and
childbirth and their young children. While there has been progress since
2000 towards some of the MDGs, the one on maternal
mortality<http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/maternal-mortality>
in
particularly far behind.

Bob Orr, the UN assistant secretary general, told the Guardian before the
summit that the plan would accelerate progress towards MDG4 on maternal
health <http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/maternal-health> without
detracting from the rest.

"The metaphor that the secretary general has been using is that we need to
take the dead weight of the caboose at the back of the train and move it to
the engine of the MDGs," he said.

Raising extra funds for maternal health from governments whose own economies
are floundering will not be easy, but the secretary general's office will
point to the huge expected "ripple effect" from preventing the deaths of
women who ensure the safe upbringing and education of their children.

Ban is hoping for pledges of extra cash from more of the world leaders
attending the summit today. He hopes to raise $26bn (£16.7bn) by 2011 and
$42bn by 2015. But in just over a month, there will be more calls on the
donors from Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and
Malaria, which are holding back-to-back replenishment conferences in
October.

Yesterday's event, which also involved the development secretary, Andrew
Mitchell, and representatives from the governments of Kenya, Afghanistan,
Nicaragua, Finland and the US, underlined the competition there will be for
resources unless the pot grows significantly larger.

Orr said that donations by governments to either Gavi or the Global Fund
would count towards the secretary general's plan, on the basis that vaccines
for children are critical to their survival and that HIV/Aids and malaria
kill pregnant women. "We don't care what vehicle the money and service
delivery come from," he said. "What we do care about is that it is handled
in the way outlined in the strategy."

He was optimistic that more money than before would be put on the table. "Do
I think we are going to raise all the money we need? I think it is unlikely
we will get to these numbers overnight, but I do think we will see a
dramatic turn in the curve towards achieving them," he said.

Momentum breeds momentum, he added. "People like to be part of a winning
formula. With more effort going in, we are seeing more progress."
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