Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to support immunisation programmes in developing countries.

DFID primarily supports immunisation programmes in developing countries through the provision of funding to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

The UK is the largest donor to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi is a public-private partnership that saves lives by increasing access to immunisation in developing countries. Since 2000, Gavi has vaccinated half a billion children and saved 7 million lives. The UK will provide a total of £1.44 billion to Gavi over 2016-2020. It is estimated that UK support will save a child’s life every 2 minutes.

The UK is also a key donor to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which is working to eradicate polio by 2019. Since GPEI’s creation, global polio cases have fallen by more than 99%. Africa has now been polio free for nearly 1 year. The UK has committed £300 million to polio eradication over 2013-2019.