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UN Secretary-General drops in on GAVI's innovative
financing stand.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon chats with GAVI's
Ariane Leroy at the 2009 ECOSOC Innovation Fair. Copyright:
GAVI 2009/Marina Krawczyk |
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Ban Ki-Moon pays a visit on GAVI's innovative financing
display at the Palais des Nations
Geneva, 6 July 2009 – Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General
of the United Nations, dropped in on the GAVI stand showcasing
innovative ways to raise funds for immunisation at this year's
ECOSOC
Innovation Fair at the Palais des Nations on Monday.
Running parallel to ECOSOC’s high-level segment of the annual
substantive session (July 6-9), this year’s Innovation Fair
offers private and public sector organisations, foundations
and CSOs the opportunity to highlight cutting edge approaches
to development.
Pioneering
The GAVI display focused on its two pioneering finance models
-- the
International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm)
and the Advance
Market Commitment (AMC).
To date, IFFIm, which converts long-term government pledges
into immediately available cash by selling bonds on the international
capital markets, has raised more than US$2 billion for the
purchase of life-saving vaccines for the world’s poorest countries.
The AMC aims to stimulate the development and manufacture
of new vaccines suitable for developing countries at affordable
prices. Last month, GAVI kicked-off the first-ever AMC, designed
to accelerate access to vaccines against pneumococcal disease.
Central forum
The Secretary-General was due to formally open the high-level
segment of the ECOSOC session on Monday together with Sylvie
Lucas, ECOSOC President, and Hans–Rudolf Merz, President of
the Swiss Confederation; some 600 delegates are attending
the annual event.
The ECOSOC serves as the central forum for the discussion
of international economic, social, humanitarian and environmental
issues and plays a key role in fostering international cooperation
for development.
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