$500M immunization fund pledged by Canada for developing nations

Canada will provide $500 million to help immunize children in developing countries, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today in Senegal.

The money is part of the $3.5 billion committed by Canada for maternal, newborn and child health to be spent between2015 and 2020. Harper announced that funding last Mayat the Saving Every Woman Every Child summit in Toronto.

Harper,in Senegal for the annualFrancophonieSummit,pledged the money to the GAVI Alliance, which aims to speed up the introduction of basic, inexpensive vaccines that weren't previously available in developing countries, according to the news release from the Prime Minister's Office.

GAVIlets governments in the 56 poorest countries those with a per-capita gross national income of less than US $1,550 apply for the funding.

GAVI had called for financing for its 2016-2020 strategy, which set a goal of immunizing an additional 300 million children. GAVI estimates that will save the lives of five millionto six million children.

Harper has made maternal, newborn and child health a focus of Canadian international development funding since 2010, the year Canada hosted the G8 and G20 summits. Canada pledged $2.85 billion that year for maternal and child health, including immunization programs, under a plan known as the Muskoka Initiative.

More fundingfor immunization, Ebola care

Childhood immunization is one of the most cost-effective solutions to ensure child survival.

The PMOsays global reduction of child deaths from nearly 12 million in 1990 to 6.6 million in2012 is due in large part to the scalingup of essential vaccinations.

Canada will also contribute $20 million for immunization in central and west African countries that are part of the Francophonie. That money will also go to GAVIand is part of the $2.85 billion pledged in the2010 Muskoka Initiative.

International Development Minister Christian Paradis also has announcedCanada will provide an additional $20.9 million to humanitarian organizations fighting Ebola, including $5 million to the French Red Crossto support the operation of Ebola treatment centres in Guinea.