DECISION ON THE STATUS REPORT ON GLOBAL ALLIANCE
FOR VACCINES AND IMMUNIZATION (GAVI)
The Assembly:
1. TAKES NOTE of the Report;
2. ACKNOWLEDGES that vaccines constitute one of the most effective means of improving health and reducing the suffering and mortality occasioned by infectious diseases;
3. ALSO ACKNOWLEDGES that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is a public-private partnership established in 1999 to reinforce the commitment to immunization;
4. URGES Member States to take all necessary measures to ensure that every child in Africa is fully immunized by widening, for all children, the range of basic vaccines (measles, poliomyelitis, BCG and DTC) to include Hepatitis- B Vaccines;
5. FURTHER URGES Member States to establish more effective linkages between immunization and health sector development in general, and create technical partnerships between low and medium income countries to promote experience and resource sharing so as to reduce the gap between children born in different environments;
6. APPEALS to GAVI partners to support efforts aimed at combating measles which accounts for 50% of infant mortality each year in Africa; formulate strategies to ensure the sustainability of immunization services in the poorest countries, with over 80% coverage; and help low-income African countries to identify mechanisms which will enable them to increase their national immunization budgets;
7. URGES GAVI partners to undertake to increase the number of African governments on the Governing Body of GAVI in order to reflect the priority needs of the Continent, and to collaborate with the vaccine industry partners to guarantee adequate supply of essential vaccines
8. FURTHER URGES donors, international organizations and all institutions working in the health and development sector to provide adequate and sustained official development assistance for long-term funding, as well as other financial incentives related to poverty reduction strategies, such as debt cancellation and additional technical assistance;
9. FINALLY REQUESTS the Secretary General to take all the necessary measures to follow-up on the implementation of the present decision and report to subsequent sessions of Council.