ABSTRACT
On 31 January 2000, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) was inaugurated at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Its existence marked an inflection point in global health because the launch was made possible by a $750 million investment by the nascent philanthropic organisation The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Today, Chris Elias is the President of the Global Development Division at the Foundation and is unambiguous in his view: ‘GAVI was one of our first, largest and best investments’. One of the most profound statistics in global public health has been the 50% reduction in under-5 deaths this century. As the first Director of GAVI, Tore Godal prioritised the introduction of new vaccines against meningitis and other infectious diseases quickly and equitably. By 2019, GAVI had helped to vaccinate more than 760 million children and saved over 13 million lives in 73 countries. This chapter brings the reader inside the history of immunisation, the origins of GAVI, the day-to-day work of the organisation, and explores how, according to the global health historian William Muraskin, ‘Tore Godal was the glue that held things together’.
