My first Magazine EDUCARE MAGAZINE SPECIAL NOVEMBER EDITION 2019 | Page 25

28 educaremoney
educarelearning
BUILDING ECONOMIES
BY CLOSING IMMUNIZATION
GAP
A healthy child does not need costly healthcare and medical
treatment. A healthy child's parents are in a better position to go out
to work. And a healthy child is able to attend school and become a
more productive member of society.
DR. JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE
L
ike many people my, age I carry a
small childhood scar on my left
shoulder, an indication that I was
once vaccinated against smallpox.
In the villages of Tanzania, such scars used
to act as a form of branding, a sign of an
otherwise invisible gap that existed between
those of us fortunate enough to have been
immunized against that deadly virus and
those who were tragically still at risk. As the
scars now fade, so too does the memory of
smallpox, thanks to vaccines. Nevertheless,
today immunization gaps persist across
Africa for many other diseases, and because
of this we still see nearly three million
children dying needlessly every year.
It is true that great progress has been
made in recent years to increase the
coverage of childhood immunization
across the continent, and this has helped to
halve childhood mortality since 1990. But it
is also true that one in five children in Africa
Educare November 2019
are still not fully protected against vaccine-
preventable diseases. This must change.
Not just because it is our moral duty to
protect all children, but also because
ultimately doing so can help us to bring an
end to poverty.
This may sound fanciful, but there is
growing evidence to support such a claim.
The power of vaccines to save lives and
prevent disease is already well known. What
is less widely understood, however, is that
immunization also offers broader
economic benefits which can help boost
economies. A healthy child does not need
costly healthcare and medical treatment. A
healthy child's parents are in a better
position to go out to work. And a healthy
child is able to attend school and become a
more productive member of society. The
latest research suggests that in the world's
poorest countries, every dollar invested in
vaccines translates into US$16 in immediate
healthcare savings, and US$44 in longer-
term economic returns.
It follows that we simply cannot fail to
increase immunization coverage if we want
to achieve our goals for the African Agenda
2063. Failing to address the inequities that
prevent children from being vaccinated
could help exacerbate the economic gaps
w h i c h e x i s t a m o n g i n d i v i d u a l s,
communities and even nations. We saw this
recently, first with Ebola and now with
yellow fever, where the effects of infectious
disease were amplified by weak health
systems and felt not just in terms of human
suffering but also long-term economic
impact. By allowing immunization gaps to
endure there is a real danger that individuals,
communities and nations missing out on
life-saving vaccines will continue to fall
behind, not just in terms of their health but
economically too.
UN Women strengthens partnership with HP to expand digital
learning opportunities for women and girls. (Image from
eu-acerforeducation.acer.com)
25
EXPANDING
IT PARTNERSHIP
New HP partnership expands digital learning opportunities for
women and girls in Africa
U
N Women and HP have
entered into a partnership in a
bid to expand digital learning
opportunities for women and girls in
Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
and Morocco.
The collaboration will leverage UN
Women's African Girls Can Code
initiative, a joint programme of the
African Union Commission, UN
Women and the Inter national
Telecommunication Union.
"Education is a fundamental human
right that should be available regardless
of a person's gender, class, race or
location," said Elisabeth Moreno, Vice
President and Managing Director, HP
Africa. "To that end, HP has pledged to
enable better learning outcomes for 100
million people by 2025 - a commitment
that aligns with the fourth goal of the
United Nations' Sustainable
Development Goals: Quality
Education. As the world wakes up to
the power of women, HP is partnering
with UN Women to embrace the power
of education and job training to
reinvent mindsets, promote careers in
technology, and drive systemic change."
HP's partnership with UN Women
through two UN Women initiatives,
Second Chance Education and African
Girls Can Code, possesses immense
potential to both scale and address the
lack of investment in women and
affording them access to opportunities
for career work and economic growth.
"Today over 131 million girls are out
of school, and half a billion women are
illiterate" said Phumzile Mlambo-
Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN
Women. "We see an urgent need to
enable girls and women to gain digital
literacy and become economically self-
reliant. Bringing together civil society,
public, and private sectors, and most
impor tantly, women and their
communities, UN Women is seeking to
break current trends by creating global
solutions and scalable models".
Educare
Future Leaders Programme
COMING THIS DECEMBER 2018
Educare November 2019