At the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI) Conference in London held on 13 of June, the EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, announced the pledge towards the US$ 3.7 billion (or €2.6 billion) total which GAVI has said it needs to vaccinate nearly 250 million children over the next five years. This is expected to save almost 4 million lives.

Every year the European Commission spends more than half a billion Euro on health in developing countries. Much of this is direct support to effective health systems (human resources, medicines, vaccines) at country level, but this also includes the Commission's support to the Global Health Initiatives like GAVI or the Global Fund.

The GAVI Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children's lives through the use of vaccines. By the end of 2010, it is estimated that 300 million children across 72 countries will have been vaccinated with this support.

The European Commission has already pledged €20 million for GAVI between 2011 and 2013. This builds on its previous commitment of €220 million to support immunization programmes; €53.4 million of which was spent through the alliance. The additional money pledged will go towards vaccines for the two biggest childhood killers; pneumonia and diarrhoea, as well as for areas where vaccines are new or currently underused such as rubella, typhoid and meningitis.

Health is also indirectly supported through general budget support linked to health targets, as well as the Commission's support to water and sanitation (as well as to other areas that are relevant to health).