Partnerships can save more lives
Gavi has supported the introduction of 380 routine vaccines into the health systems of vulnerable countries and helped to immunise 690 million children, preventing 10 million future deaths.
Since the creation of the Global Fund, deaths related to AIDS and TB have fallen by a third, and malaria by half.
GFF’S ‘In Support of Every Woman Every Child’ is today tackling the more than five million maternal, newborn, and child deaths that still occur among the world’s poorest people each year.
These spectacular gains made in human health need to be sustained and accelerated. Polio is only endemic in three countries, but until we get to zero, all countries will be at risk of polio re-emerging. Following the historic progress of reductions in malaria cases and deaths, we are on the verge of a resurgence that could see millions more at risk. And, despite more children being immunised worldwide than ever before with the highest level of routine coverage in history, increasing coverage rates with children in the world’s poorest countries continues to be a challenge.
To address these ongoing concerns, a massive replenishment effort for these funds is under way. As large philanthropists emerge both at global and domestic levels, these new forms of partnerships and alliances offer a powerful way forward. While donors and governments with the capacity to provide resources at a global scale can replenish these ‘Global Health Funds’, domestic donors can partner with their respective governments to set up similar mechanisms to multiply the impact that they can have working alone. These partnerships are essential if we want to create a world in which where you live does not determine whether you live.
Joe Cerrell and Nachiket Mor are both employees of the Gates Foundation. Joe Cerrell is managing director of the Gates Foundation’s Donor Government Relations team working across Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and Nachiket Mor is country director for India. The views expressed are personal