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MARY
ROBINSON AND MADELEINE ALBRIGHT HOST FELLOW WORLD LEADERS IN SUPPORT OF
THE GAVI ALLIANCE: (MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 24 September 2007 --
Mary Robinson and Madeleine Albright hosted fellow world leaders in support of
the GAVI Alliance at an event in New York City recently. Child
advocates drawn from an unusual pool — the financial services industry —
celebrated, with a member of Spain’s royal house, a former president of
Ireland, and a renowned former US Secretary of State, the happy outcome of
applying the lessons of business to the business of saving children’s lives.
La
Infanta Cristina of Spain, President Mary Robinson and Secretary Madeleine
Albright have all been working together to enlist accomplished professionals
from the financial world in a long-range campaign, run by the GAVI Alliance, to
help stop preventable infectious diseases killing millions of children every
year in poor nations.
In just
over five years, strategic investments by the GAVI Alliance have prevented 2.3
million early deaths through immunisation. Yet each year 2.5 million children
under five still die from diseases that can be prevented by existing vaccines.
“We
need to step up our efforts to eliminate preventable diseases in the developing
world,” stated Andrew Maguire, Executive Director of the new private
fundraising effort The GAVI Fund’s Immunize Every Child Campaign.
“GAVI
offers flexibility, speed, and business savvy in bringing effective new vaccines
to hundreds of millions of children in the world’s poorest countries. GAVI’s
innovative business model is demonstrating strong appeal among philanthropists
with experience in the business and financial services industries,” said
Maguire.
The
GAVI Fund’s Immunize Every Child Campaign was established in January 2007
to engage the private sector in the GAVI Alliance’s life-saving mission.
Investors who have made or secured significant commitments to The GAVI Alliance
are acknowledged by the Campaign’s recognition society, the Every Child
Council.
At
Monday night’s event the founding members of that council - a diverse and
dynamic group of influential individuals - from public and private life are
being recognised at a celebratory founders' reception on 24 September at the
Cooper-Hewitt Museum on the Upper East Side.
This
event, timed to occur between the opening of the UN General Assembly and the
fall meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, is co-hosted by Madeleine
Albright, GAVI Alliance Executive Secretary Julian Lob-Levyt, and Mary Robinson.
Her
Royal Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Her Royal Highness the Infanta
Cristina of Spain, and Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, will be
designated honorary founding members of the Council in recognition of their many
efforts on behalf of children and childhood immunisation.
Jon
Corzine, governor of the State of New Jersey, Mel Karmazin, chief executive
officer, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, and George Wellde, Jr., Managing Director,
Goldman Sachs, will also be recognised for their exemplary support for GAVI’s
work.
The more
than 100 prominent guests will also include leading figures in business,
finance, global health, and international development, as well as selected
journalists and writers. The historic venue is the former mansion of legendary
U.S. industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Long-term
support to GAVI from 17 governments, the European Commission, and the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation is saving lives and strengthening healthcare delivery
systems in more than 70 of the world’s poorest nations, and more than $2.6
billion in traditional funding has been committed through 2015.
“There
is still so much to do,” says Andrew Maguire. “Starting now and over the
next decade, GAVI and its partners must massively scale up to reach every
at-risk child in the poorest countries with the vaccines we already have. At the
same time, we need to invest in a new generation of vaccines against deadly
scourges of the developing world like pneumococcal disease.”
Within
the last year the GAVI Alliance has fostered the creation of the International
Finance Facility for Immunisation (www.iff-immunisation.org) and the Advance
Market Commitment for Vaccines (www.vaccineamc.org) to generate large-scale
investment in immunisation, vaccine research and development and to harness
market forces.
Now the
search for new and additional sources of innovation capital is leading GAVI in
another new direction: to a critical mass of entrepreneurial private investors
who believe in GAVI’s business model and are committed to making the
difference that will protect millions of children’s lives.
The
GAVI Fund
The GAVI
Fund was created as the financing arm to help support the GAVI Alliance’s
immunisation goals. The GAVI Alliance includes among its partners developing
country and donor governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the
World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialised and developing
countries, research and technical agencies, NGOs, and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.
It is
estimated that more than 2.3 million early deaths will have been prevented as a
result of GAVI’s support to more than 70 developing countries during the first
5 years.
GAVI's
efforts are critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goal on child
health, which calls for reducing mortality among children under five by two
thirds by 2015.
The
GAVI Fund’s Immunize Every Child Campaign
The
GAVI Fund’s Immunize Every Child Campaign was established in 2007 to
engage visionary private philanthropists in the rapidly expanding work of the
GAVI Alliance.
For more information:
Nicole King GAVI Alliance Tel: +1 (202) 297 2386 Email: nking@gavialliance.org
Labels:
GAVI Alliance,
Mary Robinson, Madeleine
Albright, Andrew
Maguire
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