Global leaders commit $2.6 billion at World Health Summit to end polio
Global leaders confirmed $2.6 billion in funding toward the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) 2022-2026 Strategy to end polio at a pledging moment co-hosted by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) at the World Health Summit in Berlin.
The funding will support global efforts to overcome the final hurdles to polio eradication, vaccinate 370 million children annually over the next five years and continue disease surveillance across 50 countries.
Wild poliovirus is endemic in just two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, after just six cases were recorded in 2021, 29 cases have been recorded so far this year, including a small number of new detections in southeast Africa linked to a strain originating in Pakistan. Additionally, outbreaks of cVDPV, variants of the poliovirus that can emerge in places where not enough people have been immunized, continue to spread across parts of Africa, Asia and Europe, with new outbreaks detected in the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom in recent months.
In addition to existing pledges, new commitments to the 2022-2026 Strategy this fall include:
- Australia pledged AU$ 43.55 million
- France pledged EUR 50 million
- Germany pledged EUR 72 million
- Japan pledged US$ 11 million
- Republic of Korea pledged KRW 4.5 billion
- Luxembourg pledged EUR 1.7 million
- Malta pledged EUR 30 000
- Monaco pledged EUR 450 000
- Spain pledged EUR 100 000
- Turkey pledged US$ 20 000
- United States pledged US$ 114 million
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged US$S 1.2 billion
- Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged US$ 50 million
- Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America pledged US$ 1.8 million
- Latter-day Saint Charities pledged US$ 400 000
- Rotary International pledged US$ 150 million
- UNICEF pledged US$ 5 million
