President John Dramani Mahama has implored the 'super powers' of the world to invest in saving lives rather than in ammunitions.Addressing a global health summit organised by GAVI and the Gates Foundation in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, President Mahama said the US$9 billion sought by the GAVI vaccine alliance over the next five years is equivalent to the cost of just four B-2 Spirit bombers."This morning, I took time to reflect, researched and discovered that one B-2 Spirit bomber that dropped bombs on Iran recently cost US$2.13 billion."If you work the math, GAVI seeks the value of four of those B-2 bombers.
Surely, the world can invest the equivalent cost of four B-2 bombers to save 500 million children," he said at the pledging session of the summit.The B-2 Spirit Bomber is an American heavy strategic bomber that uses low-observable stealth technology to penetrate sophisticated anti-aircraft defence.In President Mahama's view, the decision between saving lives and taking them is a fundamental moral choice the international community must make to make the world a better place to live."I am sure we will save lives instead of taking them," he stated.He lauded Gavi for the intervention to make vaccines available to millions of children which was not the case in decades past."Today, GAVI has changed all that and given hope to millions of children," he stated, adding that GAVI's efforts allow children to grow into "responsible citizens."Ghana, President Mahama said, aims to fast-track its graduation from GAVI funding by 2030 and become a donor country."We are hoping that we'll fast track our weaning off GAVI by 2030.
We're supposed to go off GAVI funding by 2030 and it's my expectation that we will work hard to be like Indonesia and in future, become a donor country to GAVI," President Mahama stated.He disclosed that Ghana has achieved 97 per cent immunisation coverage with GAVI's support."It means that another three per cent is missing, and we're working hard to find those 65,000 children who are in remote areas that are difficult to reach, and I know that working with GAVI, we would be able to find those children and also give them lifesaving vaccines."Ghana, a lower middle-income-country, he said, had spent almost US$67 million on vaccines in partnership with GAVI in recent years and hopes to increase the amount in the future.He expressed Ghana's gratitude to GAVI and countries which pledged at the summit and endorsed the slogan, "While others step back, we step up." BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
