Bill & Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program
The Bill & Melinda Gates Children's Vaccine Program (CVP) was an American funding vehicle focused on increasing the speed of development and distribution of vaccines to children worldwide. It was administered by PATH.
History
The CVP was launched on December 2, 1998 with a five-year $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.1)
Within its first year, the CVP had “fundamentally and profoundly altered the landscape of global public health,” according to then-Director Mark Kane. It served as a founding member of GAVI, and helped form the Global Fund for Children's Vaccines in 1999 through a $750 million grant, alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI.
Several more significant grants were issued; the CVP gave the World Health Organization $11.25 million for vaccine initiatives, $10 million to UNICEF for “global advocacy for immunization country-level immunization programs,” and $3.7 million to the World Bank to “support initiatives to include immunization programming in bank loans.”
The CVP collaborated with the National Institutes of Health to test the “field efficacy” of a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in The Gambia.
Organization
Partners
The CVP was a member of the Allied Vaccine Group, alongside the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases (PKID), Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), Vaccine Page and the National Network for Immunization Information.2)
Most of the CVP's work was carried out through partners which included non-governmental organizations and national governments, particularly national Ministries of Health and Finance. Notable partners included:
- Africa Health (magazine)
- Child Health Dialogue (magazine)
External links
1)
Kane, M. (2000, January). Year One In Review. Children’s Vaccine Program. https://web.archive.org/web/20000903064454/http://www.childrensvaccine.org/files/CVP-Year-One.pdf
2)
Members. Allied Vaccine Group. Retrieved February 6, 2001, from https://web.archive.org/web/20010206034519/http://vaccine.org/members.htm