Burges Salmon has advised Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, on its US$ 100 million partnership with International Rescue Committee and World Vision to immunise children across marginalised communities.
Gavi is a public-private partnership that brings together developing country and donor governments, The World Health Organization, UNICEF, The World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners to help vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases.
As part of its mission to save lives and protect people’s health by increasing equitable and sustainable use of vaccines, Gavi has helped vaccinate more than 888 million children in the world’s poorest countries, preventing more than 15 million future deaths.
The Zero-Dose Immunization Programme between Gavi, International Rescue Committee and World Vision will dedicate up to US$ 100 million to reach zero-dose children – those who have not received a single routine vaccine shot – living in displaced communities and fragile and conflict settings across 11 countries in the Horn of African and Sahel regions.
The project is the first time that Gavi has worked with non-governmental organisations as implementing partners and will focus on reaching children in areas outside government reach, mobile populations and refugees who move across borders.
The Burges Salmon team advising on the deal was led by Projects senior associate Rory Trust with support from Projects partner Patrick Parkin, senior associate Sam Charkham and trainee Alice Willoughby.
Rory Trust comments: “We are extremely proud to have supported Gavi in developing new ways of working with NGOs to reach marginalised communities. This project is a key part of Gavi’s drive to use innovation to reduce the number of zero-dose children globally by 25% by 2025 – we are delighted to have been a part of that.”