WHO welcomes the appointment of
the Chair-elect of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala. She will take up the position of Chair from January 2016.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a renowned
development economist and former Nigerian Finance Minister. She brings more
than 33 years of development and financial expertise to the Gavi Board at a
critical period for immunization in developing countries.
Earlier this year, WHO warned
that vaccines are not being delivered equitably or reliably and that only 1 out
of the 6 key vaccination targets for 2015 is currently on track – the
introduction of under-utilized vaccines, a target to which Gavi has contributed
significantly.
In taking up the position of
Board Chair, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will succeed Dagfinn Høybråten, a former
Norwegian Minister of Health and current Secretary General of the Nordic
Council of Ministers. She will also work closely with Dr. Flavia Bustreo, WHO
Assistant Director-General for Family, Women’s and Children’s Health, who is
Vice Chair of Gavi.
Since 2000, Gavi has supported
the immunization of more than half a billion additional children, leading to 7
million future deaths being averted.
WHO is one of the founding
members of Gavi, a public-private partnership formed in 2000, to address global
inequities in access to and coverage of available lifesaving vaccines. Over the
next 5 years, WHO will continue to lead collective efforts to achieve and
sustain universal vaccination coverage as outlined in the Decade of Vaccines
Global Vaccine Action Plan. WHO plays a critical role providing global
recommendations on immunization, ensuring that vaccines are safe and of assured
quality, and providing support to countries to implement immunization
programmes.
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