From Council on Foreign Relations, 30 June 2011
On Monday here at the Council on Foreign Relations Laurie Garrett convened the roundtable, “From IAVI to GAVI: A Conversation with Seth Berkley on the Future of Vaccines and Global Health.”
The full transcript of this extremely insightful discussion is now posted, and is fully on-the-record:
http://www.cfr.org/health/iavi-gavi-conversation-seth-berkley-future-vaccines-global-health/p25406
Today is Dr. Seth Berkley's last as chief executive officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. In August he takes the reins of GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines Initiative, based in Geneva. Seth has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations for several years, and a very close and valuable advisor for the Global Health Program. His new responsibilities and distance, moving to Switzerland, mean we are losing a great friend of the Program.
The Monday discussion, as you can read in the transcript, ranged from issues specific to the search for a vaccine against HIV, all the way to the large-scale architecture of “global health,” future of the World Health Organization, and massive growth of GAVI. Earlier this month GAVI faced donor replenishment amid a global recession, and prospects seemed gloomy as every other global health program is suffering. But Prime Minister David Cameron and Bill Gates led the charge, pushing donations far beyond GAVI's requests so that Seth inherits an organization with $7.6 billion in its coffers (pledged and real). That means GAVI's annual budget is more than double the annual budget of the World Health Organization.
We wish Seth Berkley great success at the helm of GAVI, and look forward to news regarding transitions in the leadership of IAVI.
Kindest regards,
Zoe
Zoe Liberman
Research Associate, Global Health Program
Council on Foreign Relations
58 East 68th Street, New York, New York 10065
tel 212.434.9749 fax 212.434.9816
zliberman@cfr.org www.cfr.org
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