Albares opens Conference on the Global Impact of Vaccination

This five-yearly conference, which in its 2023 edition has been organised for the first time by the Government of Spain and GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance), is meeting from today until 15 June to analyse the progress made by the Alliance to guarantee access for the population of 57 low-income countries to vaccines that can contribute to reducing mortality.

This year's event in Madrid brings together 17 health ministers and senior officials from GAVI's partner countries. The conference will be attended by a total of around 300 participants, representing governments, civil society, the private sector, Vaccine Alliance partners and other Global Health stakeholders.

Co-chaired by Professor José Manuel Barroso, Chairman of the GAVI Board of Trustees, the conference began with a keynote speech by the Spanish Foreign Minister in which he underlined that "Spain considers global health as a priority to achieve human development and the well-being of our societies". His speech was followed by interventions by video conferencing from GAVI CEO Seth Berkley, WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus; and UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The conference sessions will focus on GAVI's progress towards its global immunisation goals, the importance of collaboration with the private sector, new immunisation priorities such as HPV and malaria, and how the Alliance can help combat climate change.

The Conference on the Global Impact of Vaccines is the first face-to-face conference on the state of global vaccination since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It launched a new report, "Raising Generation ImmUnity", on the progress made since 2020 towards immunisation targets, as well as a set of new statistics that point to a global recovery in routine immunisation by 2022.

Vaccine Alliance

GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate nearly half the world's children against some of the world's deadliest diseases. The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other private sector partners.

Since its inception in 2000, GAVI has helped immunise an entire generation - more than a billion children - and has helped avert more than 16.2 million child deaths, cutting child mortality by more than half in 73 low-income countries. After two decades of progress, GAVI is now focusing on protecting the next generation, and especially the "zero-dose" children, i.e. those who have never been vaccinated.

Spain became a Gavi donor in 2006, as one of the six original IFFIM (International Finance Facility for Immunisation) partners, and is a major donor to this innovative financial mechanism, with a total commitment of €290 million.

Non official translation