News
 
Following its sixth meeting, held from 15-17 May 2012, the Independent Monitoring Board wrote to the Director-General of the World Health Organization in advance of the World Health Assembly's deliberations regarding polio eradication. This letter highlights the crisis facing the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, reaffirms the importance of the World Health Assembly's discussions, and underlines the severity of the Initiative's funding shortfall.

As usual, the Independent Monitoring Board's full report of its meeting will be available in due course.


The Independent Monitoring Board assesses progress towards the attainment of a polio-free world. The IMB convenes on a quarterly basis (beginning in December 2010) to independently evaluate progress towards each of the major milestones of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Strategic Plan 2010-2012 as 'on track', 'at risk' or 'missed', on the basis of polio epidemiology, poliovirus virology, standard performance indicators and other programme data. Additionally, the IMB provides assessments of the risks posed by existing funding gaps.

If, during its deliberations, the IMB conclude any of the milestones or process indicators to be 'at risk' or 'missed', the relevant national authorities and/or implementing/donor partners are engaged to establish emergency corrective action plans. At subsequent meetings, the IMB will then evaluate the quality, implementation and impact of any such corrective action plans.

The IMB is comprised of global experts from a variety of fields relevant to the work of the GPEI, and was established at the request of the Executive Board (EB) and the World Health Assembly (WHA). Reports from the group's quarterly meetings go directly to the heads of the spearheading partner agencies - the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF - and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and are public shortly afterwards.