GAVI Alliance
Statement by Dr. Seth Berkley
SDG Summit interactive dialogue: Building effective, accountable and inclusive
institutions to achieve sustainable development
Sunday 27 September, 10am- 1pm
(Check upon delivery)
_________________________________________________________________________
Thank you Mr/Madame President for the honour of participating in this summit at which the
world is setting an agenda for action over the next 15 years to benefit both people and the
planet.
The goals are great, the ambition is admirable. Sadly, I fear we will fail.
Without an institutional reset; without a preparedness to ask and to answer hard questions
about how we are collectively organised to tackle the challenges of sustainable development;
I fear we will fail.
We all are here because we wish to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. And we all want
to reach the other global goals adopted by our national leaders at this meeting.
I believe that we can succeed.
We can succeed if we can learn from our mistakes.
If we recognise that our twenty-first century development challenges are far too complex to
be left to governments alone.
If we recognise that the global goals that we set ourselves will never be achieved if left to
market forces.
And if we acknowledge that not even the collective wisdom of civil society has a monopoly on
the answers.
I have the privilege of running an organisation called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We play a
small part in the fight to end poverty through helping to make sure that children everywhere
have access to life-saving vaccines.
Gavi is a child of this millennium, having this year celebrated our 15th birthday with the news
that we had helped to immunise 500 million children and the commitment to accelerate our
efforts and reach another 300 million in the coming five years.
The inaugural chair of the Gavi Board, that great statesman and hero of humanity, Nelson
Mandela said that Gavi’s goal was very clear: “to address the gross inequities in child health
still existing in the world today”. Mandela observed that “Life or death for a young child too
often depends on whether he is born in a country where vaccines are available or not”.
If one word were to reflect the ambition of Gavi, it would be ‘equity’.
If one word were to reflect the reason for Gavi’s success, it would be partnership.
The fight against the gross inequities still existing in the world today is what the global goals
for sustainable development are all about.
And the only way we are going to win that fight is through resetting our institutions and
building them on partnerships.
Partnerships that traverse government, the market and that noisy and creative space known
as civil society.
The lesson that this millennium child Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, can share today is that
partnership has not just enabled success way beyond the capacity of individual agencies and
partners in our Alliance. It is through our partnership that we have fostered innovation.
Innovation in financing that has made smart use of official development assistance to
leverage over 5 billion dollars from the capital markets.
Innovation in procurement that has driven the price of vaccines for the world’s lowest
income countries down by 40% in the past five years.
Innovation in data and monitoring that have enabled unprecedented visibility of the most
vulnerable and most needy children.
And innovation in a business model for development assistance which works across
government, the private sector and civil society to leverage the intellectual, financial and
social resources to win the fight against gross inequity.
Mr/Madame Chair, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, the
ambition of equity runs deep in the DNA of the global goals we have set ourselves.
We can end poverty in all its forms, and we can address the gross inequities in the world
today.
But to do it, we need to learn from what hasn’t worked and take heed of what has worked.
We need to reset our institutions and foster a future built on an ambition of equity and a
foundation of partnership.
SDG Summit interactive dialogue: Building effective, accountable and inclusive
institutions to achieve sustainable development
Sunday 27 September, 10am- 1pm
(Check upon delivery)
_________________________________________________________________________
Thank you Mr/Madame President for the honour of participating in this summit at which the
world is setting an agenda for action over the next 15 years to benefit both people and the
planet.
The goals are great, the ambition is admirable. Sadly, I fear we will fail.
Without an institutional reset; without a preparedness to ask and to answer hard questions
about how we are collectively organised to tackle the challenges of sustainable development;
I fear we will fail.
We all are here because we wish to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. And we all want
to reach the other global goals adopted by our national leaders at this meeting.
I believe that we can succeed.
We can succeed if we can learn from our mistakes.
If we recognise that our twenty-first century development challenges are far too complex to
be left to governments alone.
If we recognise that the global goals that we set ourselves will never be achieved if left to
market forces.
And if we acknowledge that not even the collective wisdom of civil society has a monopoly on
the answers.
I have the privilege of running an organisation called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We play a
small part in the fight to end poverty through helping to make sure that children everywhere
have access to life-saving vaccines.
Gavi is a child of this millennium, having this year celebrated our 15th birthday with the news
that we had helped to immunise 500 million children and the commitment to accelerate our
efforts and reach another 300 million in the coming five years.
The inaugural chair of the Gavi Board, that great statesman and hero of humanity, Nelson
Mandela said that Gavi’s goal was very clear: “to address the gross inequities in child health
still existing in the world today”. Mandela observed that “Life or death for a young child too
often depends on whether he is born in a country where vaccines are available or not”.
If one word were to reflect the ambition of Gavi, it would be ‘equity’.
If one word were to reflect the reason for Gavi’s success, it would be partnership.
The fight against the gross inequities still existing in the world today is what the global goals
for sustainable development are all about.
And the only way we are going to win that fight is through resetting our institutions and
building them on partnerships.
Partnerships that traverse government, the market and that noisy and creative space known
as civil society.
The lesson that this millennium child Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, can share today is that
partnership has not just enabled success way beyond the capacity of individual agencies and
partners in our Alliance. It is through our partnership that we have fostered innovation.
Innovation in financing that has made smart use of official development assistance to
leverage over 5 billion dollars from the capital markets.
Innovation in procurement that has driven the price of vaccines for the world’s lowest
income countries down by 40% in the past five years.
Innovation in data and monitoring that have enabled unprecedented visibility of the most
vulnerable and most needy children.
And innovation in a business model for development assistance which works across
government, the private sector and civil society to leverage the intellectual, financial and
social resources to win the fight against gross inequity.
Mr/Madame Chair, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, the
ambition of equity runs deep in the DNA of the global goals we have set ourselves.
We can end poverty in all its forms, and we can address the gross inequities in the world
today.
But to do it, we need to learn from what hasn’t worked and take heed of what has worked.
We need to reset our institutions and foster a future built on an ambition of equity and a
foundation of partnership.
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