Japan grants UNICEF Cfaf 2 billionAbidjan, 20 February 2007 – The official signing ceremony of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Japan and UNICEF for a grant from the Japanese Government to Côte d’Ivoire took place on 20 February 2007 in the Conference Room of the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene. The grant amounting to Three Million Five Hundred and Eighty-Seven Thousand Three Hundred and Forty-Two US dollars (USD 3,587,342) or about CFAF 2 billion, is for the supply of vaccines, cold chain equipment and long lasting insecticide-treated bed nets, under the project “Prevention of Infectious Diseases in Côte d’Ivoire Phase II”. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mr. Kazuhiko Nishiuchi, Acting Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of Japan in Côte d’Ivoire and Mr. Youssouf Oomar, UNICEF Resident Representative in Côte d’Ivoire, under the chairmanship of the Ivorian Minister of Health and Public Hygiene. The Japanese grant will be used to purchase vaccines for routine vaccination as part of efforts for eradicating poliomyelitis and to improve the cold chain in order to ensure efficient vaccine conservation. Hence, thanks to this grant, 300,000 families in Côte d’Ivoire, composed of children aged under 5 years and pregnant women – the population group most vulnerable to malaria -, can be efficiently protected against this disease through the use of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets. Mr. Nishiuchi indicated that, through this grant, the Government of Japan would like to play a key role in the fight against malaria and infectious diseases in Africa, in accordance with the Okinawa Initiative of 2000. Mr. Oomar stressed the importance of this grant, which is going to save many children in our country where malaria is the first cause of mortality in children. The representatives of the Embassy of Japan commended UNICEF’s contribution and the realization of this new cooperation act, focused on the welfare of the Ivorian population. For his part, the Ivorian Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Dr ALLAH Kouadio Rémi, expressed, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, his immense gratitude to the Government of Japan, for its constant support and assistance to the Ivorian people. For him, this ceremony is in line with the intensification of the ties of friendship between the two countries. Finally, he expressed the hope that this Japan – UNICEF Agreement will help to increase the level of coverage and intensify the fight against Malaria. Composition of the Grant
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