The funds will go to Norwegian scientists working in collaboration with international partners to produce vaccines that could save some of the ten million children under the age of five who die yearly around the world. One in four of these children could have been saved by vaccines that are already available, or that will be available in the near future.
The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals aim to reduce the world’s child mortality rate by two-thirds by 2015, and Norway has taken the lead in achieving this goal.
- We must support research that leads to new and better vaccines. We must make sure that these vaccines are produced. And we must make them available to the people who don’t have access to vaccination programs today, said Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg during the Norwegian-Indian meeting on vaccines in Bergen on 1 February.
India is one of the countries that struggle with high child mortality rates. Of the ten million children who die worldwide before the age of five, are 2.2 million of them in India. Vaccine research represents a natural field for cooperation between Norway and India, as both countries hold complementary strengths in the research and production phase of vaccinations. Both countries hope to establish the groundwork for progress that can aid other states as well.