Dakar, Senegal - 28 November 2014
Today, in advance of the 15th Summit of La Francophonie, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada will provide significant new support towards life-saving vaccines for children around the world.
The Prime Minister made the announcement at an event with Senegalese Prime Minister Mohammed Dionne and Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance, at the Philippe Manguilen Senghor Health Clinic in Dakar to mark the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine in Senegal.
The substantial support being announced today will answer the GAVI Alliance's call, issued in May 2014, to fund its 2016-2020 strategy to immunize an additional 300 million children against a variety of diseases, and to save an estimated five to six million young lives.
The GAVI Alliance is a global health partnership representing stakeholders in immunization from both the private and public sectors. The primary goal of GAVI is to increase access to basic and inexpensive vaccines that were not previously available in developing countries.
In making this announcement, the Prime Minister delivered on his commitment to support immunization as a key pillar of Canada's maternal, newborn and child health strategy to eliminate preventable disease amongst the world's most vulnerable citizens. The Prime Minister's actions also challenge other countries to follow Canada's leadership and to increase investments in life-saving vaccines.
Canada's contribution to the GAVI Alliance is a core element of the Forward Strategy announced by the Prime Minister at the Saving Every Woman, Every Child: Within Arm's Reach Summit in Toronto earlier this year.
