ABU DHABI (Bernama-WAM): International leaders, philanthropists and global health partners on Monday announced in Abu Dhabi a collective US$1.9 billion to advance polio eradication, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
This includes approximately US$1.2 billion in newly pledged funds that will reduce the remaining resource gap for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) 2022-2029 Strategy to US$440 million.
The funds will accelerate vital efforts to reach 370 million children each year with polio vaccines, alongside strengthening health systems in affected countries to protect children from other preventable diseases.
The global pledging event, "Investing in Humanity: Uniting to End Polio", was hosted by the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity in partnership with GPEI and took place at Abu Dhabi Finance Week.
The event was attended by Vice Chairman of the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister for Planning and Development, of Pakistan, Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary, Chair of the Gates Foundation Bill Gates and Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Also present were leaders from governments, multilateral institutions, and the private sector.
Pledges were made from a diverse group of donors and countries, including: US$1.2 billion from the Gates Foundation; US$140 million from the Mohamed bin Zayed Foundation for Humanity; US$450 million from Rotary International; US$100 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies; and US$154 million from Pakistan.
Additional contributions came from Germany (US$62 million), the United States of America (US$46 million), Japan (US$6 million), the Islamic Food & Nutrition Council of America (US$4 million), and Luxembourg (US$3 million).
"We are on the cusp of eradicating polio and securing a historic win for humanity. But we need all countries, partners and donors to step up now to get the job done,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.
"The new support pledged in Abu Dhabi will be instrumental in helping the GPEI reach all children in the final endemic countries and stop variant polio outbreaks around the world,” he added. - Bernama-WAM
