Statement on the First Joint GPEI-Gavi Board Meeting

On 19 June 2025, the Boards of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will convene to discuss their shared priorities: delivering a polio-free world and building stronger immunization systems to protect all children from vaccine-preventable diseases and strengthen our collective health security.

Led by Board Chairs Professor José Manuel Barroso (Gavi) and Dr. Chris Elias (GPEI, the Gates Foundation), the meeting will aim to deepen the understanding of each other’s priorities, approaches and timelines; prioritize opportunities for enhanced collaboration, especially in the world’s most fragile settings; and, ultimately, agree to develop an integrated plan of action with clear goals, deliverables and monitoring frameworks that will advance the joint priority of reaching all children with life-saving vaccines. Representatives from key donor and implementing countries, civil society organizations, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), WHO, UNICEF, and the Gates Foundation will also be in attendance.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate more than half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases through routine immunization. As a core partner of the GPEI, Gavi supports countries to provide inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) – as a standalone vaccine or as a part of the new hexavalent vaccinethat protects against six vaccine-preventable diseases including polio – into immunization programs to boost population immunity and help prevent new outbreaks. This work is essential to sustain a polio-free world.

The GPEI is a partnership led by national governments that has reduced the number of children paralyzed by polio by 99% since 1988 through far-reaching vaccination campaigns and extensive disease surveillance networks. But many of the places where polio remains today like northwestern Nigeria are also home to some of the largest populations of children who have received no vaccines of any kind (‘zero-dose’). In these settings, the GPEI’s campaigns are often families’ only connections to the formal health system and are key to addressing critical gaps in coverage. The program, therefore, works closely with Gavi and broader immunization partners to deliver other life-saving vaccines alongside polio vaccines when possible. It also deploys its’ extensive network of trained social mobilizers and trusted community leaders to help increase uptake of all vaccines.

By strengthening their partnership, Gavi and the GPEI aim to build on their past collaboration to do more, to help each other further in their shared priorities and build a healthier future for children everywhere. All with the aim of reaching all remaining zero-dose children. In today’s environment with shrinking foreign aid budgets and growing disease outbreaks, this type of collaboration is more essential than ever.

Note: Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, joined the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in March 2019, becoming its sixth partner alongside Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Gates Foundation. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, includes several organizations on their Board that are also GPEI partners, like the Gates Foundation, WHO, and UNICEF.