13 June 2025 – On 19 June 2025, the Boards of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will convene to discuss their shared priorities: delivering a polio-free world, building stronger immunization and health systems to protect all children from vaccine-preventable diseases and strengthening our collective health security.
Led by Board Chairs Professor José Manuel Barroso (Chair, Gavi Board) and Dr. Chris Elias (Chair, Polio Oversight Board of GPEI), the meeting will aim to deepen the understanding of each other’s priorities, approaches and timelines; prioritize opportunities for enhanced collaboration, especially in the world’s most fragile settings; and, ultimately, agree to develop an integrated plan of action with clear goals, deliverables and monitoring frameworks that will advance the joint priority of reaching all children with life-saving vaccines. Representatives from key donor and implementing countries, civil society organizations, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO), and the Gates Foundation will also be in attendance.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against some of the deadliest diseases through access to new and under-used vaccines. As a core partner of the GPEI, Gavi supports countries to provide inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) – as a standalone vaccine or as a part of the new hexavalent vaccine that protects against six vaccine-preventable diseases including polio – into essential immunization programs to boost population immunity and help prevent new outbreaks. This work is critical to sustain a polio-free world.
The GPEI is a partnership led by national governments that has reduced the number of children paralyzed by polio by 99% since 1988 through far-reaching vaccination campaigns and extensive disease surveillance networks. But many of the places where polio remains today like northwestern Nigeria and northwestern Pakistan are also home to some of the largest populations of children who have received no vaccines of any kind (‘zero-dose’). In these settings, the GPEI’s campaigns are often families’ only connections to the formal health system and are key to addressing critical gaps in coverage. The program, therefore, often works with Gavi and broader immunization partners to deliver other life-saving vaccines alongside polio vaccines when possible. It also deploys its extensive network of trained social mobilizers and trusted community leaders to help increase uptake of all vaccines.
By strengthening their work together, Gavi and the GPEI can build a healthier future for children everywhere. In today’s environment with shrinking foreign aid budgets and growing disease outbreaks, this collaboration is more essential than ever.
MEDIA CONTACTS
Meg Sharafudeen
+41 79 711 55 54
msharafudeen@gavi.org
Laura Shevlin
41 79 529 92 87
lshevlin@gavi.org