What made the polio eradication initiative in the Western Pacific Region a success? It was the commitment of each and every country and area of the Region, together with the support and participation of international partners.

Governments, international agencies, community-service organizations and public health officials worked towards a common goal: to stop polio from debilitating and killing millions of children. The governments of the 37 countries and areas of the Western Pacific Region provided the bulk of the resources necessary for the undertaking. The initiative was strengthened by the presence of international partners. Without their commitment and flexibility in responding to the needs, the undertaking would have failed. International partners provided almost US$ 80 million to the Region’s polio eradication efforts: from purchasing polio vaccines to upgrading laboratory equipment to improving the capacity of health care professionals in tracking and diagnosing suspected polio cases.

The partners included UNICEF, the Governments of Australia and Japan, the Government of the United States of America through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Rotary International. At the regional level, their efforts were coordinated through an Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee. Here is an account of the contributions the major partners made to the Western Pacific Region’s polio-eradication initiative.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was founded in 1946 to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs, and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. Preventing disease is an important way for UNICEF to achieve its mission. UNICEF helped raise public awareness of the plight of so many young victims of polio, and the urgent need to rid the world of this disease. UNICEF mobilized resources in many countries and, in this Region, contributed over US $6 million for the purchase of vaccines. In addition to the financial contribution, UNICEF provided operational and technical support in countries, according to their need.

The Government of Australia has provided funding for supplementary immunization activities across the Region. In total, the Australian Government, through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), has committed close to US$ 7 million to the polio eradication campaign to purchase vaccines and cover operational costs. The Australian support for polio eradication operations was critical to the success of the campaign. It helped to pay salaries, cover travel costs for monitoring and surveillance, and purchase essential equipment.

In 1993, the Government of Japan made the first financial contribution to the polio eradication effort in the Western Pacific Region; it earmarked US$ 2.5 million for vaccine purchases. Ever since, it has been a strong supporter of the regional and global campaigns. To date, the Japanese Government, through the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has committed approximately US$ 30 million for vaccines, laboratory equipment and cold boxes for transporting vaccines and patient samples. The Japanese Government also provided staff to help train personnel in many countries, which needed to establish effective monitoring and surveillance networks for suspected cases of polio.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the premier public health organization of the American Government and is a respected provider of assistance and technical advice on national and international public health issues. CDC has been active in international efforts to control vaccine-preventable diseases for decades, including the successful global eradication of smallpox and the elimination of poliomyelitis in the Region of the Americas as well as in the Western Pacific Region. In the Western Pacific Region, CDC assistance has included equipment and training to establish the regional poliovirus laboratory network and over US$ 8 million to purchase oral polio vaccine for China.

The network of Rotary Clubs around the world has played a significant role in mobilizing private financial support, raising public awareness and organizing community assistance in the global campaign to eradicate polio. In 1985, Rotary International launched the "PolioPlus" programme, a global effort to assist international development agencies to eradicate the disease. In the Western Pacific Region, Rotary International has contributed approximately US$ 15 million for vaccines and for the strengthening of the surveillance and laboratory network.

Thousands of Rotary Club members in the Region helped to organize and carry out immunization activities. Rotary Club volunteers joined health officials in Cambodia in a boat-to-boat immunization campaign for children living on hard-to-reach waterways, several of which had been missed during National Immunization Days organized earlier. In Japan, Rotary Districts 2640 and 2650 were instrumental in fundraising and mobilizing public support for the campaign.

Many other countries made valuable contributions to the Western Pacific Region’s polio eradication initiative. Canada, Finland, France, Italy, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Sweden are among them.