Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, has been appointed as chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as the global vaccine group refocuses after the US – one of its biggest donors – withdrew support earlier this year.
Gavi faced a shortfall to its funding of US$3 billion to its target of US$11.9 billion after the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Junior said in June the US would withdraw its support for the organisation.
In response, Gavi’s board said in a statement released in July the organisation would slow down some of its immunisation programmes and sharpen its approach to focus on children living in fragile and humanitarian settings during the next five year period (2026 – 2030).
“For 25 years, Gavi has worked to protect children from preventable disease and thereby helped countries grow, prosper and become more self-sufficient,” Clark said in a statement released on Monday (6 October).
“The coming years will bring many challenges for Gavi, but also huge opportunities, and I am excited to play a role in helping it meet its most ambitious goals yet.”
Clark will take over from former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, who served two terms as Gavi chair from 2021–2025.
After her tenure as prime minister, Clark became the first woman to lead the United Nations Development Programme, where she was an advocate for China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
In 2020, The World Health Organization appointed Clark as co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response – which had a remit to review the WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of governments to the outbreak.
The panel concluded that Chinese officials could have moved faster in January 2020 to curb the initial COVID-19 outbreak and criticised the WHO for not declaring an international emergency until 30 January 2020.
“Helen is a respected global leader whose knowledge and experience will be of tremendous value to Gavi as we navigate our next strategic period,” said Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.