President Clinton announced his support for vaccination research and debt relief initiatives last week that were prompted in part by the work Kennedy School of Government think tank.

The Center for International Development (CID), a research-oriented institution headed by prominent professor Jeffrey D. Sachs '76, has been working on the initiatives for much of the past year.

In his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, Clinton called for full relief for highly indebted poor countries and also proposed a major initiative designed to spur new vaccine research and benefit the countries.

"In a world where over a billion people live on less than a dollar a day, we also have got to do our part in the global endeavor to reduce the debts of the poorest countries, so they can invest in education, health care and economic growth," Clinton said.

"I also want to say that America must help more nations to break the bonds of disease," he added.

"The budget I give you invests $150 million more in the fight against this and other infectious killers. And today, I propose a tax credit to speed the development of vaccines for diseases like malaria, TB and AIDS. I ask the private sector and our partners around the world to join us in embracing this cause. We can save millions of lives together, and we ought to do it."

The proposals for debt relief and vaccine research stem in part from ongoing CID work, including a number of CID-authored studies and policy recommendations.

The first initiative would relieve 36 countries of all outstanding debt. The federal budget for the current fiscal year already provides money for debt alleviation, which officials call a "down payment."