ISLAMABAD: A high-level mission of the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IDP) concluded its deliberations with Pakistani counterparts the other day on provision of support worth $227m for the Polio Eradication Initiative in the next three years.
The support comes at a critical juncture when Pakistan is facing serious resource constraints in sustaining the polio drive. Pakistan requires $306m to sustain the anti-polio campaigns till 2015, with a major chunk of the funding going to supply of vaccine and logistics for the conduct of polio rounds, said a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Polio Monitoring Cell. Each national round reaches over 34 million children across Pakistan.
The six-day visit of the mission, led by IDP’s director for human resource development Dr Daouda Malle, met top officials of the Economic Affairs Division (EAD), Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, PM’s Polio Monitoring Cell and provincial representatives. The team also had discussions with key international partner agencies including WHO, Unicef, and JICA.
A briefing on the current situation of polio eradication in Pakistan was given to the mission by additional secretary Furqan Bahadur Khan, joint secretary EAD Ali Raza Bhutta and national coordinator of the Polio Cell Dr Altaf Bosan.
The six-member mission was informed that the PC-1 document for the Emergency Action Plan for Polio Eradication is in the final stages of being prepared.
Internews
