Vaccines to change the world – Australia’s role in a critical global health mission – immunising against deadly diseases
This forum marks the launch of Australia’s Role in the World, a partnership initiative between The Australian Institute of International Affairs, The University of Melbourne and UN Youth Australia to engage young people, academia and the wider public in debate about major global issues.
6:30-8:00pm, Thursday 22 March 2012 in the Spot Basement Lecture Theatre, 198 Berkeley St.
Panellists:
- Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI Alliance
- Mr Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision Australia
- Sir Gustav Nossal, University of Melbourne
- Dr Kate Taylor, Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne
All children have a right to life-saving vaccines, no matter where they are born.
The GAVI Alliance (formerly The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) has made it possible to bring global immunisation levels to historic highs, and supported rollout of life-saving new vaccines.
GAVI plans to save four million lives over the next four years by vaccinating 250 million children against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus diarrhoea.
Australia is contributing money, science and leadership to the effort.
Find out about more about the immunisation effort, the science that underpins it, and learn how we can further contribute to building global health security.
For further information, contact Elizabeth Maria De Bono at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, edebono@unimelb.edu.au.
The panel
Seth Berkley
Dr Seth Berkley serves as CEO of the GAVI Alliance.
Seth Berkley joined the GAVI Alliance as CEO in August 2011, as it launched its five year strategy to immunise a quarter of a billion children in the developing world with life-saving vaccines by 2015.
Prior to joining the GAVI Alliance, Seth was the founder, president and CEO for 15 years of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the first vaccine product development public-private sector partnership. Under his leadership, IAVI implemented a global advocacy programme that assured that vaccines received prominent attention in the media and in forums such as the G 8, EU and the UN.
He also oversaw the creation of a virtual vaccine product development effort involving industry, academia, and developing country scientists.
Prior to founding IAVI, Seth served as associate director in the Health Sciences Division at The Rockefeller Foundation. He has also worked for the Center for Infectious Diseases of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and for the Carter Center where he served as an epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health in Uganda.
Tim Costello
Tim Costello is one of Australia’s leading voices on social justice issues. He’s taken a prominent role in national debates on issues such as gambling, urban poverty, homelessness, reconciliation and substance abuse. Tim’s also been instrumental in keeping the issues surrounding global poverty on the national agenda since February 2004, when he joined World Vision Australia as Chief Executive.
His passion for alleviating the suffering of poor communities in the developing world came to the fore in the days and weeks following the 2004 tsunami that devastated coastal communities in Southeast Asia. His activism and leadership, and the generosity of countless Australians, helped World Vision Australia raise more than $100 million for tsunami relief.
Tim went on to demonstrate his commitment to social justice as a leading figure of the Make Poverty History campaign.
Prior to joining World Vision Australia, Tim served as Minister at the Collins Street Baptist Church in Melbourne, and as Executive Director of Urban Seed, a Christian not-for-profit outreach service for the urban poor.
Kate Taylor
Dr Kate Taylor is an Australian medical doctor and public health specialist. She is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health and Ormond College, where she is writing a book on the global health system.
Previously, she worked as a business consultant with McKinsey & Company. She helped to shape a range of public private partnerships (PPPs) for global health, initially from the founding of the World Economic Forum’s Global Health Initiative, where she facilitated a range of partnerships between companies, the public sector and NGOs and represented the private sector on the Boards of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Roll Back Malaria; Stop TB; and the GAVI Alliance.
With the World Economic Forum, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and at GlaxoSmithKline, she has been involved with a broad range of private public partnerships spanning new vaccine development through to innovative financing.
Gustav Nossal
Sir Gustav Nossal is Professor Emeritus at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
He was born in Austria in 1931, and came to Australia in 1939. In 1965 he was appointed Director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, a position he held from 1965-1996.
Sir Gustav is currently Professor Emeritus within the Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne; a consultant for the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and a Principal of Foursight Associates Pty Ltd. He was formerly Chairman of The Global Foundation Advisory Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (1998 to 2000).
He was knighted in 1977, made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989 and appointed Australian of the Year 2000.