Gavi approach provides blueprint for beating viruses like Covid-19

4th June, London, UK: Earlier today, at The Global Vaccine Summit hosted by the UK Government, donors from around the world committed US$8.8 billion to ensure that Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, can continue its vital work ensuring that children in the world’s poorest countries have access to life saving vaccines.

The pledges made at the conference mean that Gavi is fully funded for the next five years. This will enable it to deliver vital vaccines to over 300 million children, saving 8 million lives – and ensuring that many more people will benefit from a safer, healthier start to life. This money will also help improve health systems and strengthen vaccine supply and distribution chains – which will play a crucial role in ending the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit also focused on steps to ensure Covid-19 vaccines are distributed as widely and as equitably as possible. To support this effort, Gavi used the summit to launch the Advance Market Commitment for COVID-19 Vaccines (Gavi Covax AMC), a new financing instrument aimed at encouraging production of sufficient quantities of eventual COVID-19 vaccines, and increasing the speed at which vaccines become available, particularly to the poorest countries around the world.

Speaking after the conclusion of the summit, Gayle Smith, CEO and President of The ONE Campaign said:

“The pledges made today will help to protect hundreds of millions of children around the world and mark a vital vote of confidence in our ability to beat diseases everywhere.”

“What makes Gavi so special is that it takes the best of humanity and weaponizes it against disease – the science to create life-saving vaccines, the ingenuity to get them to every corner of the planet and the determination to work together to protect the most vulnerable. This is the best blueprint we have for beating diseases like Covid-19 so it’s especially encouraging to have further commitments not just to find the tools to beat the virus but to get them wherever they’re needed.”

“Real credit goes to all those who saw the bigger picture today, especially the UK for hosting this event and to all those donors who stepped up and made sure Gavi is fully funded. This is great leadership which will not only save millions of children’s lives but increases our ability to prevent future pandemics – protecting everyone.”

Stuart Hickox, Canada Director of The ONE Campaign said:

“Today, Canada joined other countries to help protect millions of children in the developing world from preventable disease. This kind of international cooperation is even more essential now because the organizations that make routine vaccines possible will be the critical infrastructure that makes a Covid vaccine accessible to all.”