(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Al Ansari Exchange on Tuesday announced a partnership in support of two major health priorities: polio eradication and treatment and prevention of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
A joint commitment of $10 million was made, with each side committing to provide half of that amount over the next five years.
The agreement, which was signed in Abu Dhabi by Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation, and Mohammed Ali Al Ansari, chairman of the Board of Al Ansari Exchange, will start with an initial contribution of $4 million to support polio eradication activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan and the prevention and treatment of NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa. Administered through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, initial funds will go towards improving polio vaccination campaign quality.
The NTD funding will be administered through the END Fund, the world's first private philanthropic initiative to combat the seven most common NTDs in Africa, and target 12 million people, including 3 million school-aged children in Mali. Worldwide, NTDs affect more than one billion of the world's poorest people, including 500 million children.
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