Minister Harsh Vardhan nominated to GAVI Board

The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan was recently nominated by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI as a member of GAVI board. The term of the minister as a member in the GAVI board will be between 2021 and 2023. The Minister is to represent the South East Area Regional Office/Western Pacific Regional Office in the GAVI board. Currently, the seat is held by Myint Htwe of Myanmar.

Dr Harsh Vardhan was elected as the chair of the World Health Organization.

GAVI Board

The GAVI Board is responsible for policy making, providing strategic directions, over seeing the operation of the alliance and to monitor programme implementation. The board will provide a forum for balanced strategic decision making and partner collaboration.

GAVI

GAVI is Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation It works to achieve the objective of “Immunisation for All”. The alliance aims to save lives, protect the world against the threat of pandemics and reduce poverty. It has so far helped vaccinating more than 822 million children in the poorest countries and prevented 14 million future deaths.

It works in partnership with World Health Organization on COVAX. COVAX is an alliance that aims to provide equal access to COVID-19 vaccines to all developing countries.

India and GAVI

GAVI plays a major role in the Immunization drives of India such as Rotavirus vaccine, Measles-Rubella vaccine, Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), Tetanus and Adult diphtheria vaccine, inactivated polio vaccine. However, GAVI has recently announced that it is to withdraw its financial support to India. This because the threshold of Gross National Income per capita of a country to receive financial aid from GAVI should be less than 1,500 USD. The Gross National Income per capita of India was 2,130 USD in 2019. The threshold was set in 2011 and India crossed the benchmark in 2015. Still no official orders are passed in regards to the funding.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2020