Every Woman Every Child Celebrates New Vaccine Funding

Every Woman Every Child welcomes the news that GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has raised $8.8 billion—surpassing its $7.4 billion goal—during its Global Vaccine Summit 2020 yesterday in London.

GAVI has always done essential and life-saving work: since it was founded in 2000, GAVI has supported vaccination in 68 of the world’s poorest countries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, its work supporting access to vaccines for infants and children is even more crucial. Currently, polio vaccination campaigns have been suspended and 23 countries have already suspended their measles campaigns. Experts are now bracing themselves for a disease surge that could undo years of gains due to wide-spread disruption of life-saving immunization services which is projected to put 80 million children at risk of disease.

GAVI will use these funds to not only to fill in these gaps, but also to strengthen countries’ health systems and build the infrastructure necessary to quickly deliver a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available. The funding commitments will immunise 300 million more children worldwide, saving up to 8 million lives by the end of 2025.

Additionally, five manufacturers have committed to increasing and prioritising HPV vaccine supply to Gavi-supported countries, which have among the highest cervical cancer burdens in the world. GAVI estimates that up to 84 million girls in the poorest countries could receive HPV vaccines in the next 5-year period, averting 1.4 million future cervical cancer deaths. “This will have a profound impact on the lives and well-being of adolescent girls,” stated EWEC Executive Coordinator Vivian Lopez. “Moreover, it will help us get closer to achieving the critical targets for women and girls set in the EWEC Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health.”

On 5 March 2020, the High-level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child (EWEC), Chaired by the UN Secretary-General, affirmed their commitment and unwavering support for a full GAVI replenishment. Every Woman Every Child stands with and is fully committed to this critical alliance and to a full replenishment to help end preventable deaths among women, children and adolescents by 2030.