France to co-host with African Union and Gavi the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA) and Gavi’s Investment Opportunity for 2026–2030

Global health and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance stand at a crucial point. Collective action can sustainably warrant well-being and health for future generations. It is time to unite forces to ensure significant and long-standing progress in the fight against diseases and for enhanced primary health care in a spirit of innovation and equity.

On 20 June 2024, a high-level event co-hosted in Paris by the Government of France, the African Union, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, along with the support of Team Europe, will launch the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), an initiative that will provide financial incentives to help vaccine manufacturers in Africa scale up production and become sustainable on a long-term basis.

The need to ensure regional diversification of vaccine manufacturing was a key learning from the COVID-19 pandemic when a lack of local manufacturing capacity in Africa and other parts of the world meant these countries had to wait longer for vaccines to become available.

“Our determination to promote equitable access to global health and the health sovereignty of our African partners is growing further,” said Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, French Minister of State for Development and International Partnerships.

In addition, Gavi will also make the case for donors to invest in a new era of immunization for enhanced equitable access to health care. This high-level event will bring together leaders from government, partner organizations, civil society, and business for an event focused on setting out the funding Gavi will need to support and sustain immunization from 2026 through 2030.

“In 2023, Gavi marked a milestone of immunizing over 1 billion children. Today, looking ahead to 2030, we have the opportunity not only to accelerate the rate at which we are protecting children but to protect them and others from even more diseases. With the gracious support of our co-hosts, we have the best possible chance of seeing our 2030 goals realised,” said Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The publication of Gavi’s Investment Opportunity marks a key moment in the Vaccine Alliance’s five-year cycle, kicking off a period of intense engagement with donors from government, business, and philanthropies. This will culminate with a donor-pledging conference targeted for the end of 2024 that is aimed at securing enough support from donors to fund the Alliance’s work for the following five years.

The funding enables Gavi to help more than 50 of the world’s lowest-income countries secure access to existing and new vaccines, protect communities by strengthening primary health care, shield them from the growing effects of climate change, and play a foundational role in global health security. It is intricately tied to Gavi’s next strategy, Gavi 6.0, which will be approved by the Gavi Board earlier in June 2024.

Although the precise details of the forthcoming Investment Opportunity are yet to be finalized, it will enable Gavi to introduce and scale up the widest portfolio of vaccines in its history – including protecting women and girls from cervical cancer with HPV vaccines and reducing child mortality through malaria vaccines. It will also enable Gavi to protect the world from global health threats brought about by climate change, deploy innovations, and strengthen health systems to reach more zero-dose children and missed communities.

“With our Alliance on track to meet almost all of the goals we set ourselves for 2025, we need also to consider how we can accelerate our progress and broaden the protection we can provide to populations for the rest of this decade,” said Professor José Manuel Barroso, Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “As Gavi sets these ambitious goals, I am grateful for the leadership of France, the African Union, and Africa CDC as we make the case for investing in immunisation and strengthening global health security.”