*ELECTED CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF GAVI, A $12 BILLION MULTILATERAL
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP ON VACCINES
Former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has accepted two key international positions.
The first is to serve as Chair of the 28-member Board of the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, GAVI,
(http://www.gavi.org/about/), an international public-private partnership
committed to saving the lives of children and protecting people’s health
by improving access to immunization in developing countries, including
Nigeria.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala was elected to the position after a competitive
international search process.
GAVI is a $12 billion multilateral partnership which disburses grants of
upwards of $1.8 billion annually to developing countries for immunization
programmes.
GAVI brings together developing countries and donor governments, the World
Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both
industrialized and developing countries, research and technical agencies,
civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private
philanthropists.
GAVI is funded by governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,
France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the People’s Republic of
China, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Spain, the State of Qatar,
the Sultanate of Oman, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States as
well as the European Commission, the OPEC Fund for International
Development (OFID) and other institutional and corporate partners.
It will be recalled that, from 2000-2015, GAVI disbursed $425m in grants
to Nigeria, an average of about $30m per annum for vaccination and
immunization of children, including polio vaccines.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala succeeds Dagfinn Høybråten, a former Norwegian Minister
of Health and current Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers
as Chair of GAVI.
Previous Chairs include Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and
respected education activist and former First Lady of South Africa, Graca
Machel.
In the second appointment, the former Managing Director of the World Bank
has also joined the highly respected 167-year-old global investment firm,
Lazard (https://www.lazard.com/) as Senior Advisor. Her focus will be
sovereign advisory.
“We are proud to welcome Dr. Okonjo-Iweala as a Senior Advisor to our
world-leading sovereign advisory group,” said Matthieu Pigasse, Global
Head of M&A and Sovereign Advisory of Lazard. “She will bring a unique
international expertise and experience that will benefit both our
sovereign and corporate clients.”
At Lazard, Dr Okonjo-Iweala will work alongside colleagues including
former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating; former Special adviser
to President Bill Clinton, Vernon Jordan; former Spanish Economy Minister
and current Snr Managing Director at Lazard, Rodrigo de Rato; former chair
of NASDAQ, Frank Zarb; former Finance Minister of Chile, Andres Velasco;
and former British Minister of Parliament/Secretary of State for
International Development, Andrew Mitchell.
In her reaction to the two appointments, Dr Okonjo-Iweala who will be
working out of Paris, Geneva and London said:
“I am excited to be embarking on this fresh journey. The two appointments
will enable me to continue doing what I know best – rendering public
service and using my financial and economist skills. I thank the
international community for the recognition and continued support. I am
also grateful for the prayers and support of many Nigerians”.