“Vaccine Heroes” Exhibition - Gavi

Dr. Seth Berkley [CEO, Gavi the Vaccine Alliance]
Ms. Anuradha Gupta [Deputy CEO, Gavi],
Excellencies,
Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen:


It is a pleasure to join you today on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva for the opening of this exhibition. A big thank you to Gavi for hosting this engaging event and for inviting me to be here with you today.

Geneva continues to attract international agencies, private sector actors, public-private partnerships, NGOs and leading academic institutions working on global health. Together, all these players have made Geneva the world’s health capital.

It is safe to say that in its almost two decades of existence, Gavi has become one of International Geneva’s most successful public-private partnerships – setting the standard for improving access to immunisation and delivering quality vaccines to developing countries, averting more than 10 million deaths, and immunising 65 million children in 2017 alone.

Diseases do not distinguish between rich and poor; they don’t discriminate between age and gender. Yet, it is the young, the old, the poor and the marginalised who face the greatest risk because they lack access to critical health services.

Improving access in order to not leave anyone behind is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - humanity’s roadmap for the next decade. Our success in global health depends on close collaboration, continued innovation and the strengthening of national policies to support health interventions, such as immunisation programmes and campaigns.

Every year, vaccines save millions of lives, preventing disease before it has a chance to breakout. Gavi is at the forefront of delivering this much needed care through the “Vaccine Heroes” we are celebrating here today.

But what is a hero? Are they super-strong or super-smart? Not necessarily. These men and women are regular people – vaccinators, parents, nurses, doctors, advocates and scientists – who bring their dedication and resilience to some of the world’s most dangerous places, with the sole goal of saving lives.

They are often at risk, too. In 2016, the U.N. Security Council resolution recognising health workers as “the first line of defense against international health crises” passed with overwhelming support.

Yet, the ones saving lives are increasingly at risk of losing theirs. Hospitals and ambulances are bombed, medicines and relief supplies are looted, and humanitarian aid workers are killed, detained or denied access to people in desperate need.

Last year alone saw 312 attacks on health facilities, ambulances and health workers. The same year, 139 humanitarian aid workers were killed. In 15 countries, fifty-six health programmes were forced to close due to insecurity. And these numbers keep growing each year.

This is unacceptable.

We must do more to ensure the protection of health workers worldwide in order for Gavi and other partners to provide these critical, life-saving vaccines to patients - whenever and wherever they might be needed most.

Thank you.