Norway was being widely praised this week after Prime Minister Erna Solberg committed to increase funding to the international vaccine alliance Gavi by fully 56 percent over the four years from 2016-2020.
“There’s still a lot to do,” Solberg said when attending Gavi’s pledging conference in Berlin earlier this week. She noted that while 6 million children’s lives have been saved by vaccines provided through the alliance, another 1.5 million children could have been saved if they’d been vaccinated.
Her government decided to increase Norway’s donation to the program to NOK 6.25 billion (USD 811 million), from the roughly NOK 4 billion provided between 2011 and 2015. She called Gavi, founded by Microsoft entrepreneur Bill Gates, “a good example of an innovative partnership that’s part of modern foreign aid policies,” and that partnerships between the public and private sectors “can yield results.”
Gavi’s chief executive Seth Berkley said the alliance was “grateful to Norway for recognizing the importance and impact of immunization. The investment that Norway is making through Gavi will save lives and will support us in our mission to reach every child with vital vaccines.”
newsinenglish.no staff
