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Provisional Agenda
Media advisory
Challenges to polio eradication: Reaching all children

Invitation to Media Working Lunch

WHAT:
A luncheon following the Global Polio Partners Summit where key country representatives from UNICEF in Nigeria and Angola, as well as representatives from the World Health Organization and Rotary International will discuss the progress and challenges to polio eradication.

WHO:
Participants include: Anthony Bloomberg, UNICEF Representative, Angola, Christian Voumard, UNICEF Representative, Nigeria and Mia Farrow, actress and UNICEF Special Representative. Other participants to be announced.

Barbara Crossette, the New York Times United Nations Bureau Chief will moderate.

WHEN:
12:15 - 2:00 pm

WHERE:
Maurice Pate Conference Room
UNICEF House, 13th floor
3 UN Plaza, 44th Street (between 1st and 2nd Aves.)

WHY:
Significant challenges affect the efforts to eradicate polio ranging from issues of access in conflict areas to securing funding to completing the final phase of the program. The objectives of the lunch discussion are to brief journalists on the progress and challenges to date; suggest various media angles for covering the story and discuss support to journalists interested in taking part in field visits to endemic countries.

Polio Facts:

Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, great progress has been made. At the end of 1999, there were approximately 7,000 reported cases of polio and 20,000 estimated cases compared with an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988. The final phase efforts to be announced at the Global Polio Partners Summit call for total eradication and certification by 2005.

The number of infected countries has fallen from 125 to 30: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, India, Iraq, Liberia, Mali, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Togo.

For further information, please contact:

Stacey Harris, UNICEF, tel: 212-326-7259, sharris@unicef.org

Mohammad Jalloh, UNICEF, tel: 212-326-7516, mjalloh@unicef.org

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