The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) have committed $59.2 million in support of eradicating polio by 2026. 

The funding includes a concessional loan of up to $59.2 million, with a principal buy-down of up to $21.5 million from the Gates Foundation. Funds will go towards Pakistan’s national health institutions and the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative. 

Since the devastating floods of August 2022, which left one-third of Pakistan submerged underwater, approximately 15,000 people have been killed or injured, and eight million displaced from their homes.  

The floods also damaged more than two million homes, 13,000 kilometres of highways, 439 bridges, and 888 health centres destroyed. The Gates Foundation also noted that flooding triggers a surge in water-borne diseases (severe diarrhoea and cholera) and diseases carried by insects (dengue fever and malaria). 

The initiative is part of wider efforts to build a climate-resilient health system with diseases directly or indirectly on the rise from climate change.  

The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme is to be funded through the World Health Organisation (WHO) in immunisation activities, disease surveillance, polio campaign monitoring. 

Funding will also provide support for women polio healthcare workers, often on the frontline of fighting polio and other diseases. 

“This €55 million investment helps to address a dual challenge that is central to the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs’ global health strategy and its international partnerships policy: strengthening our partners’ health systems while taking into account the impact of climate change on public health,” said Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, secretary of state in charge of development, Francophonie, and international partnerships. “This program is an excellent illustration of this.” 

“Pakistan has made incredible progress toward eradication, and by addressing barriers to eradication—including gender-related barriers—will continue to do so,” said WHO regional director Ahmad Al-Mandhari. “Commitments like this will help keep the country on track to interrupt transmission of wild poliovirus for good and help deliver a more resilient, polio-free world.” 

Shafi Musaddique is a news editor at Alliance magazine