Among the areas prioritized by the partnership are the stengthening of the Education for All campaign, with an emphasis on Africa s low primary school enrolments and countries where girls enrolment lags, as well as global immunization efforts. The Progress of Nations 1999 calls for a massive final push to free the world of polio, down to 6,000 confirmed cases last year compared with 35,000 a decade earlier. This is the result vaccination campaigns, particularly through national immunization days that attempt blanket immunizations of entire regions and countries. Some 450 million children were vaccinated against polio last year. These campaigns are now also being used to provide vitamin A supplementation, which can save the lives of children vulnerable to vitamin A deficiency and hold hope for other health efforts.
Similar efforts are underway in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
We have made it clear to South Asian countries and partners that the Bank does not wish children to be without immunizations solely for lack of funding, said Richard Skolnik of the Bank s South Asia regional office. We have committed to restructuring existing projects, doing emergency operations, or pushing forward regular projects on immunization as necessary to help the polio eradication program or to strengthen routine immunization efforts. Click here for more on the Bank s work on health, nutrition and population, and here for more on education.