[ 2011-06-14 ]

Britain donates £800m to fund world vaccines
The Prime Minister said the new funding
arrangement, announced at a global vaccine
conference in central London, vaccinate more than
80 million children against diseases such as
pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Britain and billionaire Bill Gates together
pledged more than $2.3 billion (£1.4 billion) at
an international donor conference on Monday to
fund vaccination programmes to protect children in
poor countries.

Speaking at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunisation (Gavi) conference in London, Mr
Cameron said the new funding pledge would help
save 1.4 million lives in the developing world
over the next five years.

The conference is being attended by world leaders,
charities, private companies and philanthropists
including Bill Gates, the Microsoft chief, which
is discussing how to generate the funds to ensure
children receive protection against potentially
fatal diseases.

Gavi is facing a shortfall of £2.3 billion for
its work over the next five years, charities have
warned.


"Britain will play its full part," Mr Cameron told
the conference.

"In addition to our existing support for Gavi, we
will provide £814 million of new funding up to
2015.

"This will help vaccinate over 80 million children
and save 1.4 million lives."

He added: "That is one child vaccinated every two
seconds for five years. It is one child's life
saved every two minutes. That is what the money
that the British taxpayer is putting in will
give."

The conference will be told that the lives of
millions of youngsters are at stake because of a
funding crisis in attempts to keep them free from
disease.

Mr Cameron and Mr Gates, one of the world's most
successful business chiefs and philanthropists,
are urging the world to support the case.

Mr Gates told the conference that his Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation was pledging an
additional one billion US dollars (£616 million)
over the next five years to help the vaccination
campaign.

The money adds to a pledge made by Australia's
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd on Sunday who said his
country would donate $210 million (£141million)
to GAVI over three years until 2013.

More international donors, including the United
States, France, Germany, Japan and others, are
expected to add their pledges later on Monday in
an effort to stump up an extra $3.7 billion
(£2.27 million) needed by GAVI to fund its
programmes through to 2015.

Mr Cameron acknowledged that the increased cash
for vaccinations - part of the UK's goal of
devoting 0.7% of national income to aid by 2013 -
would be "controversial" at a time of cuts in
spending on public services at home.

He told the conference: "At a time when we are
making spending cuts at home what we are doing
today and the way we are protecting our aid budget
is controversial.

"Some people say we simply can't afford spending
money on overseas aid right now, that we should
get our own house in order before worrying about
other people's problems.

"Others see the point of helping other countries
to develop, but they don't think aid works anyway,
because corrupt dictators prevent it from reaching
the people who really need it."

But the Prime Minister rejected these arguments.

"I think there is a strong moral case for keeping
our promises to the world's poorest and helping
them, even when we face challenges at home," he
said.

"When you make a promise to the poorest children
in the world, you should keep it."

Mr Cameron recalled watching the G8 summit at
Gleneagles and the Live 8 pop concert in 2005 and
thinking it was right that world leaders should
make public pledges to help the poorest
countries.

"For me, it is a question of values," he said.

"This is about saving lives. It was the right
thing to promise. It was the right thing for
Britain to do. And it is the right thing for this
Government to honour that commitment."

Some people were pressing him to put off aid
commitments until after Britain's economy is back
on an even keel, said Mr Cameron.

But he insisted: "We can't afford to wait. How
many minutes do we wait? Three children die every
minute from pneumonia alone. Waiting is not the
right thing to do. I don't think 0.7% of our gross
national income is too high a price to pay for
saving lives."

And Mr Cameron said that there was a "strong
practical" argument for aid, as it would help
transform poor countries in Africa into trading
partners for the UK, and would prevent the
conditions which lead to mass migration,
radicalisation and terrorism.

"If we invest in countries before they get broken,
we might not end up spending so much on dealing
with the problems. Whether that's immigration or
new threats to our national security," he said.

Mr Cameron added: "I actually think that most
people in our country want Britain to stand for
something in the world, to be something in the
world.

"When I think about what makes me proud of our
country, I think of our incredibly brave
servicemen and women and of our capabilities as an
economic and diplomatic power, but I also think of
our sense of duty to help others.

"That says something about this country and I
think it's something we can be proud of."

Acknowledging the problem of corruption, Mr
Cameron said: "I totally get this argument. It's
right to be angry when aid is badly spent.

"Let me tell you: I'm not prepared to see a single
penny of hard-earned money wasted on corrupt
governments, or badly spent aid.

"But the answer isn't to walk away from aid. It's
to change the way we do development - so that we
get real results and real value for money."

Gavi's aim of raising £2.3 billion over the next
five years will help protect at least a quarter of
a billion children against killer diseases and
save four million lives, said Mr Cameron.

And he asked: "In this world, where countries are
tackling deficits, and more than ever before the
emphasis is quite rightly on getting value for
money, what greater value for money can there
possibly be?"

The conference wants to save the lives of four
million children and transform those of 250
million more by the middle of the decade.

The conference will bring together national
governments, private companies, donors and civil
society for a global push to protect the poorest
in the world from preventable diseases such as
pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Britain's existing commitment is £680 million for
2011-15, but it has not been disclosed yet how
much it will increase by. Britain has already
vaccinated 55 million children around the world
since 2000.

Earlier, Andrew Mitchell, the International
Development Secretary, said Britain would show
leadership at the conference.

Mr Mitchell said when the Government was elected
last year there had been a "root and branch"
review of all 43 of the international
organisations through which Britain channels
taxpayers' money on development.

"This alliance on vaccines and immunisation came
out just about top – really, really good value
for money – and that is why we are giving it
such strong support," he told BBC Breakfast.

"We know that British taxpayers' money will reach
where it is really needed.

"This is our 'big ask' for this year. We think
that this is the way that Britain can make a real
difference, our taxpayers will feel the money is
being really well used."

He added: "After all, for the price of a cup of
coffee you can vaccinate a child against all five
of the main killer diseases which children all
around the poor world ... die of every 20 seconds,
but children in Britain don't die of these
diseases."

Asked about where the money would come from, he
replied: "It comes out of the ring-fenced existing
international development budget."

Mr Mitchell also defended Britain's aid budget,
which despite cuts across Whitehall has increased,
prompting vocal criticism from the Tory
backbenches.

He said it was not only ''morally right'' but in
the UK's national interests to continue to fund
development projects around the world.

He said: ''We don't protect our security only by
tanks and guns but also by training the police in
Afghanistan, getting girls into school in the Horn
of Africa and building up government structures in
the Middle East.''

Mr Gates was in optimistic mood ahead of the
conference, saying he thought it would be ''very,
very positive''.

In an open telephone conversation, hosted by
broadcaster and Save the Children Ambassador
Natasha Kaplinksy, Mr Gates said a malaria vaccine
could be just a few years away, while polio could
follow smallpox in being eradicated thanks to the
success of its vaccine.

Vaccines were ''magic'', he said.

''They are very inexpensive, they can protect you
for your entire life, so diseases like smallpox
that used to kill millions are completely gone
because of the vaccine. It's the greatest thing
that ever happened in human health. We need to get
them out to people and invent some more.''

Gavi's global immunisation programme includes the
roll out of new vaccines against two of the
biggest child killers, pneumonia and diarrhoea.

Save the Children's new report, Vaccines for All,
reveals that there are still around 24 million
children – the world's poorest, and those most
vulnerable to disease – that have no access to
vaccines.

This could be changed if Gavi gets the resources
it needs, it says.

Jemima Khan, who is an ambassador for Unicef,
speaking on the same programme, praised the
Government for "taking the lead" on the issue.

"This conference is about saving four million
extra lives by 2015. At the moment, one child
every 20 seconds dies of a vaccine-preventable
disease. That is still a very shocking figure
given that we have the know-how, we have the
expertise to do something about that," she said.

Harriet Harman, the Shadow international
development secretary, said it was "unacceptable"
that millions of children in the developing world
die from illnesses which could be prevented by
vaccinations which are taken for granted in the
UK.

"Today, there must be bold contributions from
donors to ensure that Gavi has the resources it
needs to save millions of children's lives and
that the progress that has already been made does
not stall," said Miss Harman.

"The private sector must also play its part by
supplying vaccines at the lowest possible
prices."

Source - The Telegraph

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