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Japan grants UNICEF US $2.6 million to fight infectious diseases

    NAIROBI

    The government of Japan granted 309 million yen (US $2.63 million) to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday for efforts towards preventing infectious diseases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the Japanese foreign ministry.

    "The implementation of this project is expected to dramatically increase the vaccination rate in the country, thus decreasing cases of infectious diseases of children and reducing the infant mortality rate," the ministry said in a statement.

    Notes for the grant were exchanged in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, between Seisuke Fukushima, the Japanese ambassador to the DRC, and Mohamed Cisse, UNICEF's senior programme officer for health in the DRC.

    Japan recalled that it had previously provided UNICEF with 274 million yen in 2000 and 308 million yen in 2001 towards efforts to fight polio.

    Japan went on to say that this most recent grant was part of the Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative of July 2000, in which Japan pledged to provide up to $3 billion during the following five years through its Official Development Assistance for measures against such infectious diseases as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, parasitic diseases and poliomyelitis.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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