Geneva/Yokohama —
- Prime Minister of Japan H.E. Shigeru Ishiba announces Japan’s contribution of up to US$ 550 million to Gavi’s next strategic period at TICAD9
- Gavi and the African Union Commission renew commitment to advance universal health coverage and health security in Africa through immunisation, innovation, and co-created solutions
- Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi: “We are deeply grateful to our host the Government of Japan for the announcement of their pledge in support of Gavi’s next strategic period. Through our ambitious Gavi Leap agenda we are working hard to ensure country ownership and countries’ priorities are at the heart of strategy and decision making, and I thank the African Union Commission and Japan for their on-going partnership.”
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance welcomed renewed commitments to health equity in Africa made at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), held in Yokohama from 20-22 August 2025, which demonstrated Japan’s strong commitment to co-creating innovative solutions for Africa’s health equity.Japan announces renewed commitment to Gavi 6.0
At the Opening Session of TICAD9, H.E. Shigeru Ishiba, Prime Minister of Japan announced Japan’s commitment to Gavi, noting: “We will support Africa’s vaccine supply through contributions of up to $550 million over the next five years to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.”
This contribution to Gavi’s next strategic period from 2026 to 2030 (Gavi 6.0), underscores Japan’s unwavering leadership in global health as well as its dedication to advancing vaccine delivery and health equity on the African continent through co-created solutions. It also underscores the importance of health in relation to national and global security. With 80% of Gavi’s investments directed to Africa, Japan’s support will be pivotal in helping Gavi achieve its goal of protecting more children against more diseases, faster than ever before by 2030, when Japan will host the G7 presidency.
Gavi, AUC and Japan partner towards health equity and security
Gavi and the African Union Commission (AUC) also convened a TICAD9 Official Thematic Event titled “Co-creating Africa’s Innovative Solutions on Immunization as a Cornerstone of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030.” The event focused on advancing immunisation, scaling up domestic health financing, and building sustainable vaccine manufacturing capacity on the African continent. Building on the Addis Ababa Declaration on Immunization (ADI), participants stressed that the centrality of Africa’s leadership in health development was critical to progress and impact – issuing a call for stronger political and financial ownership by African governments, and for multilateral and bilateral partners to meaningfully support these efforts. The co-hosts also agreed to build on the strategic momentum created by Gavi’s African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), which is backed by a contribution of US$ 30 million from Japan, and collaborate in support of the AU’s vision for regional manufacturing.
“Africa’s purpose is to protect every child, nurture every community and secure the wellbeing of generations to come,” said H.E. Amb. Amma Twum-Amoah, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission. “This can be achieved through longstanding partnership and steadfast commitment towards health equity and access to immunisation. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Government of Japan have made clear commitment to such a foundation on Universal Health Coverage.”
Noting the remarkable progress made across the African region – which has successfully raised immunisation coverage to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels despite an increasing birth cohort – partners agreed that continued efforts reach unimmunised children across the African continent, particularly the 8.3 million “zero-dose” children who have yet to receive a basic vaccine, will be critical. Investing in strengthening country-led health systems and innovative finance approaches such as debt buy-downs will also be important to sustaining immunisation progress and strengthening health security.
“The progress made so far is a testament to steadfast political and financial commitment from countries and donors, who have continued to prioritise immunisation as one of the best investments to be made in health, development and security. We are deeply grateful to our host the Government of Japan for the announcement of their pledge in support of Gavi’s next strategic period,” said Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi. “Through our ambitious Gavi Leap agenda we are working hard to ensure country ownership and countries’ priorities are at the heart of strategy and decision making, and I thank the African Union Commission and Japan for their on-going partnership.”
Since 2000, more than 469 million children have been immunised – with more than 12 million deaths averted – through the strong partnership between Gavi and African governments. Through its innovative co-financing model Gavi focuses on country ownership and self-sufficiency, with countries implementing Gavi programmes contributing record amounts towards their own immunisation programmes. Through steadily increased domestic financing of vaccine programmes combined with Gavi investments in health systems, countries are eventually able to self-finance immunisation. During Gavi’s next strategic period (2026-2030), and as part of a transformative agenda to further place countries in the driver’s seat called the Gavi Leap, the organisation will leverage new ways of working – from partnerships to technologies and innovative financing – to strengthen health systems and improve delivery at the last mile.
All participants emphasised that co-creating innovative financial and technological solutions to build health systems that leave no one behind – and can detect, respond, contain and remain resilient in the face of infectious disease threats – is critical to Africa’ health development as well as global health security. For example, participants highlighted innovations introduced in Africa that could be leveraged to address challenges Japan currently faces, with Gavi serving as a critical connector between partners. The Government of Japan has taken a leading role in promoting universal health coverage (UHC) and human security as the overarching approach for attaining Sustainable Development Goal 3, including as a key Gavi donor and AUC partner.
“I had the opportunity to visit an operation site of Gavi in Ghana last year and realised that support for Africa’s health sector has a potential to improve lives and to drive societal change,” said H.E. Hisayuki Fujii, State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Japan. “As the Prime Minister Ishiba announced at the Opening Session of TICAD 9, Japan will contribute up to $550 million to Gavi for the next five years. We are proud to strongly support Gavi in ensuring the success of its next strategic plan.”
Notes to Editors
Intervention by Dr. Sania Nishtar, TICAD9 Plenary Session 3 – “Let me begin by thanking the Government of Japan for convening this very important partnership forum. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is committed to partnership with both Africa as well as Japan. We wish to thank the Prime Minister of Japan, the people of Japan, and the Government of Japan for the generous contribution of US$ 550 million to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which was announced at the Opening Session of TICAD. This contribution signals three things. Firstly, it signals Japan’s very important leadership in global health. Secondly, it signals Japan’s commitment to Africa in very concrete financial terms, since 80% of the contributions to Gavi will go to Africa directly. And thirdly, this contribution is a strong commitment of Japan to protect the health of its own people. Excellencies, as you know, there is no national security without health security. And Gavi, as a uniquely mandated organization to host the world’s vaccine stockpiles, is also the insurance mechanism to protect the health of people worldwide during public health emergencies. We are deeply grateful for this contribution. We look forward to working with the Government of Japan, the Japanese private sector, to co-create solutions for Africa, with Africa, with the leadership, with Africa in the lead. And we look forward to making our transformation program, the Gavi leap work for Africa with Africans in the leadership, and we look forward to coming back to this forum when Japan has the G7 presidency in 2030, with enhanced results demonstrated on the ground.”
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About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
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. 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 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 1.1 billion children – and prevented more than 18.8 million future deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 78 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems 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 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 X (Twitter).
