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Geneva/New York, 20 September, 2023 – Following a High-Level Meeting focused on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR) convened by the UN General Assembly during its 78th session, world leaders took a critical step towards preparing for future emergencies by adopting a political declaration on PPPR. Following three years of a historic global emergency and response, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance welcomes the decision by Member States to adopt the political declaration, helping to sustain political commitment towards ensuring the world is better prepared for the future. David Marlow, Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, comments: “The sad fact is that we know, as a certainty, that there will be future pandemics. The only question that remains is – will we be better prepared next time? With this declaration, countries have taken an important step towards breaking the panic-neglect cycle and crafting a global framework to support future response. The key now is to translate this into tangible action. Vaccines have played a critical role in nearly every public health emergency of international concern to-date. We must urgently invest in turning the learnings from COVID-19 into mechanisms that offer solutions. Gavi and partners are working to support the expansion of regional manufacturing in Africa, ensure the availability of “day zero financing” in a future emergency, improve outbreak prevention, detection, and response, and strengthen both health systems and the healthcare workforce. As recognized in this political declaration, there is a strong need to foster health in climate change adaptation efforts with a particular focus on climate-resilient and people-centred health systems. As one of the widest reaching and cost-effective healthcare interventions, routine immunization and reaching missed communities is key to expanding and strengthening health systems, and improving the ability to prevent, detect and respond to health emergencies." For further questions or comment, please contact media@gavi.org
NOTES TO EDITORS About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate 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. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organisations that fund Gavi’s work here. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 1 billion children – and prevented more than 16.2 million future deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by co-leading COVAX, the global effort to ensure access to COVID-19 vaccines for countries of all income levels, supporting health systems and outbreak response, as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningococcal and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation, above all the zero-dose children who have not received even a single vaccine shot. The Vaccine Alliance employs innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
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