The MPs, representatives from Gavi and a local health team from the town of Magude visited a small village called De Bobe. A large gathering of women and children were waiting for the health workers under a tree at the local primary school.  

“Meeting the mothers and their young children, and being present during their vaccinations was a powerful experience. This could be the difference between life and death for these children,” said Anniken Huitfeldt, chair of the committee.   

«This is development aid that really works. The vaccination of children is one of the most effective health measures around. Since it started 15 years ago, Gavi has contributed to the vaccination of 500 million children, and by doing this it has saved seven million lives. Norway’s solid support of Gavi is money well spent,” Huitfeldt added.

Norway contributes significantly to the annual funding of Gavi’s work, and has played an active role in the vaccine alliance’s work ever since its establishment at the turn of the millennium. Gavi wanted to give Nordic parliamentarians first-hand insight into the efforts to vaccinate children, and therefore helped to arrange a visit to Mozambique. Here, parliamentarians had the chance to witness how Gavi works together with the world’s poorest nations to try to provide essential vaccinations for all children.  

The World Health Organization (WHO) is an important partner in the work to vaccinate children in Mozambique. Dr Hilde De Graeve is the head of the WHO office. She told the visiting group about both the challenges and the positive trends in a country where child mortality has been drastically reduced over the past 20 years.

The MPs also went to Maputo, Mozambique’s capital city. Here they met Gavi’s partners in the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, and were given valuable insight into the health challenges facing Mozambique. They also met parliamentary colleagues from Mozambique’s Health and Social Affairs Committee and Human Rights Committee.

At these meetings it was underlined how important it was that donor countries and organizations like Gavi had a good rapport with the parliament as well as with the national government. The members of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee present on the trip were Anniken Huitfeldt (Labour Party, committee chair), Kåre Simensen (Labour Party), Sylvi Graham (Conservative Party), Elin Agdestein (Conservative Party) and Liv Signe Navarsete (Centre Party).