Canada will provide $500 million to help immunize children in developing countries, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said today in Senegal. The money is part of the $3.5 billion committed by Canada for maternal, newborn and child health to be spent between 2015 and 2020. Harper announced that funding last May at the Saving Every Woman Every Child summit in Toronto. Harper, in Senegal for the annual Francophonie Summit, pledged the money to the GAVI Alliance, which aims to speed up the introduction of basic, inexpensive vaccines that weren’t previously available in developing countries, according to the news release from the Prime Minister’s Office. GAVI lets governments in the 56 poorest countries — those with a per-capita gross national income of less than US $1,550 — apply for the funding. GAVI had called for financing for its 2016-2020 strategy, which set a goal of immunizing an additional 300 million children. GAVI estimates that will save the lives of five million to six million children.

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