The WPD Generation: Moving the needle to fight childhood disease
Nov 10th, 2011 4:02 PM UTC
By ONE Partners
Bill Roedy, former CEO of MTV, explains why he is passionate in the fight to end pneumonia, a preventable disease.
As a music lover and former CEO of MTV Networks International, I’ve spent decades trying to give voice to young people struggling for creative freedom. More recently though I’ve also taken to a new cause: the struggle of babies and children in poor countries just to survive.
Few people can even name the leading global killer of young children — it’s pneumonia — and it claims a child’s life every 20 seconds. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of these deaths take place in the developing world where access to health prevention and care is sometimes complicated.
World Pneumonia Day (WPD), November 12, is an opportunity to remember those many young lives lost to pneumonia which could have been prevented in large part with vaccines, access to simple antibiotics and improved nutrition. If we could ensure that existing vaccines reach those children who need them most we would make a huge difference in preventing the more than 1.5 million young lives lost each year to this devastating disease.
Until recently, it would have taken 10 to 15 years for a vaccine released in the United States or Europe to be available in the developing world. Thankfully, the GAVI Alliance has been able to dramatically accelerate that timeline for the introduction of the pneumococcal vaccines, bringing them to the developing world much faster. GAVI is an innovative and effective organization which aims to use the same model for other lifesaving vaccines.
This weekend, in time for World Pneumonia Day, Malawi will become the 16th GAVI-supported country to introduce this life-saving vaccine. Three million children living in developing countries have already been reached, and another ten million are expected to receive the vaccine in 2012. This fact is especially important when one considers that 98.5 percent of pneumonia deaths occur in less developed countries, where distance, poverty and other factors put medical care out of reach for many.
As parents, we would stop at nothing to protect our children if they were sick. Many families — in rich and poor countries alike — are living in poverty or debt as a result of sickness in the family. By preventing disease in the first place, immunization can eliminate the need for hospitalization or expensive medical treatment, and in many cases help families avoid succumbing to poverty.
The introduction of the pneumococcal vaccine into the world’s poorest countries is a cornerstone of GAVI’s ambitious plan to ensure that all of the world’s children have a healthy start in life. But much remains to be done. Millions of children still do not receive this vaccine as well as other routine immunizations, and GAVI will need the continuing support and commitment of its donors to ensure that they do.
By 2015, the GAVI Alliance plans to help about 60 countries introduce this vaccine into their routine immunization systems, reaching a total of 90 million children. By helping to protect children with vaccines, GAVI partners and donors are supporting a major contribution to the Millennium Development Goal 4 which calls for a two thirds reduction in child mortality by 2015.
Key to this contribution has been GAVI’s Advance Market Commitment (AMC), an innovative finance mechanism that has accelerated the production of pneumococcal vaccines. By concluding long-term supply agreements at a ceiling price, the AMC reduced market uncertainty, thereby encouraging manufacturers to develop adequate production capacity and supply at lower prices. The AMC was made possible with US$ 1.5 billion from Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Norway, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and is part of a broader GAVI plan to ensure that all children have equal access to life saving vaccines.
This World Pneumonia Day, join me in spreading the message that no child should die of a disease we can prevent.
Saving Lives: Could There Be Any Better Return on Investment?
Posted: 11/ 4/11 07:08 PM ET
Vaccines have been touted by economists, health experts and world leaders alike as one of the best buys in public health, and they are one of the safest and most effective ways to save children’s lives and protect entire communities from infectious diseases. A quick jab in the arm or drop in the mouth can provide a lifetime of protection against some of the deadliest threats we face.
With the tools at hand to prevent disease and help save millions of lives, why not do everything in our power to help? And in this economy, why not invest in a sure thing?
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), which has helped immunize nearly 300 million children in more than 70 countries since it was founded in 2000, has just announced a major new initiative aimed at engaging private sector leaders: the GAVI Matching Fund.
Through this program, the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide a 100% match of contributions to GAVI from corporations and foundations as well as their customers, members and employees. Together, DFID and the Gates Foundation have pledged $130 million to support this effort, which means there’s the potential to generate $260 million for global childhood immunization efforts.
So, why GAVI, with so many good causes vying for support?
With a low overhead and an unprecedented track record of success, GAVI is a lean and results-focused Alliance that leverages the best of the public and private sectors for the common global good. Over the next four years alone, it is set to double the life-saving impact it had over the last decade — but GAVI can’t do it without our help.
One child dies every 20 seconds from pneumonia — a disease that could have been prevented with a vaccine, and that’s just unacceptable — especially when you consider many of these deaths happen in countries that often don’t even have the facilities needed to treat deadly infectious threats. Prevention is key and achievable, so let’s make it happen.
After more than 30 years in the business world, I appreciate performance and any business would aspire to GAVI’s return on investment. There’s no doubt that doing social good is good business when done smartly. I commend the four entities that have already contributed to this project — ARK, “la Caixa” Foundation, J.P. Morgan and AngloAmerican plc — and I urge other CEOs to consider joining the effort together with their employees, customers and business partners.
Today, the world is too interconnected for corporate leaders not to think globally. Getting involved in such an initiative offers a chance to expand your reach, strengthen your brand, tap into new channels, and impress your staff and customers by doing social good with the best experts in the field. This is your chance to do something bigger than your brand, something lasting and life changing — giving a shot at a healthy life to the poorest kids in the world.
With financial support, the GAVI Alliance can vaccinate 250 million children by 2015. With a sound investor offering to double your money, there’s even more reason and urgency to act now.
Just think: A $3 million donation — matched by DFID or the Gates Foundation — would buy enough vaccines to immunize more than a half million children against pneumococcal disease in 2012 — one of the main causes of death from pneumonia — or nearly a million children against diarrhea caused by rotavirus. I can’t think of a better return on investment.
So I ask you, why not invest in a sure thing, when a 100% match to your investment is guaranteed?
Bill Roedy is the former CEO of MTV Networks and a GAVI Alliance Envoy.