The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is a coalition of global leaders in immunization including UN organizations, national governments, foundations, NGOs, and the pharmaceutical industry, formed in response to stagnating global immunization rates and widening disparities in vaccine access among industrialized and developing countries. Since 1999 the alliance has provided a mechanism for partners to collaborate more closely, agree upon common goals and strategies, and share a commitment to do more for immunization--and to do it better.

The Board

The GAVI Board sets the policies of the alliance. Comprised of the highest-level representation from the partners, there are four renewable members --WHO, UNICEF, The World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation--and eleven rotating members responsible for representing the collective expertise and perspective of their constituencies.

Current Board members are:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: Mr William H. Gates, Sr., Co-Chair and CEO

UNICEF: Ms Carol Bellamy, Executive Director & Dr Suomi Sakai, Chief, Immunization Activities

WHO: Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General & Dr Yasuhiro Suzuki, Executive Director, Health, Technology and Pharmaceuticals

The World Bank Group: Mr James Wolfensohn, President & Mr Christopher Lovelace, Director, Health Nutrition and Population

Foundation: UN Foundation Mr Tim Wirth, President

Government Developing Countries: Mali Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, Minister of Health; India Dr. C.P. Thakur, Minister of Health and Family Welfare

Government Industrialized Countries: Norway Dr Sigrun Mogedal, State Secretary; United Kingdom Ms Clare Short, Minister for International Development; United States Dr. E. Anne Peterson, Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S.A (http://www.usaid.gov)

Vaccine Industry Developing Country: CIGB, Cuba Dr Luis Saturnino Herrera Martinez, Director-General

Vaccine Industry Industrialized Country: Wyeth-Ayerst Global Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Kevin L. Reilly, President, Wyeth Vaccines and Nutrition

Non-governmental Organization: PATH, USA Dr Mark Kane, Director, Children's Vaccine Program at PATH.

Research Institute: Institut Pasteur, France Dr Philippe Kourilsky, Director-General

Technical Health Institute: Centers for Disease Control (CDC), USA Dr David Fleming, Deputy Director for Science and Public Health

The Working Group

The GAVI Working Group is responsible for the implementation of the decisions of the GAVI Board. The Working Group is comprised of middle-level managers in the GAVI partner institutions. These staff are able to translate GAVI priorities into their respective agency workplans.

Current Working Group members are:

GAVI Secretariat: Dr. Tore Godal, Executive Secretary
The Vaccine Fund: Mr. Jacques-François Martin, President
UNICEF: Dr. Paul Fife, Health Advisor, Immunization Health Section
The World Bank: Ms. Amie Batson, Sr. Health Specialist, Health, Nutrition and Population Unit
WHO: Mr. Michel Zaffran, Programme Manager, Vaccines and Biologicals
Vaccine industry Wyeth-Ayerst Labs: Ms. Jacqueline Keith, International Trade Relations
Non-govermental organization PATH: Dr. Mark Kane, Director, Children?s Vaccine Program
Industrialized country government USAID: Dr. Steve Landry, Technical Advisor, Children?s Vaccine Program
Developing country government Tanzania: Dr. Caroline Akim, EPI Manager
Research Institute Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine: Dr. Myron (Mike) Levine, Director, Center for Vaccine Development

The Secretariat

The GAVI Secretariat --five professional staff and two secretaries housed in the European regional office of UNICEF in Geneva--facilitates coordination between the partners and manages the review of country proposals to the Vaccine Fund. The Executive Secretary reports to the GAVI Board and the Secretariat's budget is financed by membership fees paid by the GAVI Board members. For more information on the operations of the Secretariat, please see Overview of the Operations Function in the GAVI Secretariat.

Task Forces

Four GAVI Task Forces have been established to address specific issues of concern to the Board. Task forces are funded and managed by their respective lead agency(ies), and include representatives of the relevant partner agencies. The Advocacy Task Force is chaired by UNICEF; the Task Force for Country Co-ordination is co-chaired by WHO and the government of Norway; the Financing Task Force is co-chaired by the World Bank and USAID; and the Research and Development Task Force is co-chaired by WHO, NIH and Chiron Vaccines.

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