Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has accepted two key international positions.
The first is to serve as Chair of the 28-member Board of the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), an international
public-private partnership committed to saving the lives of children
and protecting people's health by improving access to immunization in
developing countries, including Nigeria.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala was elected to the position after a competitive
international search process.
In the second appointment, the former Managing Director of the World
Bank has also joined the highly respected 167-year-old global
investment firm, Lazard as Senior Advisor.
Her focus will be sovereign advisory.
"We are proud to welcome Dr. Okonjo-Iweala as a Senior Advisor to our
world-leading sovereign advisory group," said Matthieu Pigasse, Global
Head of M&A and Sovereign Advisory of Lazard.
"She will bring a unique international expertise and experience that
will benefit both our sovereign and corporate clients."
At Lazard, Dr Okonjo-Iweala will work alongside colleagues including
former Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating; former Special
adviser to President Bill Clinton, Vernon Jordan; former Spanish
Economy Minister and current Snr. Managing Director at Lazard, Rodrigo
de Rato; former chair of NASDAQ, Frank Zarb; former Finance Minister
of Chile, Andres Velasco; and former British Minister of
Parliament/Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew
Mitchell.
In her reaction to the two appointments, Dr Okonjo-Iweala, who would
be working out of Paris, Geneva and London said,"I am excited to be
embarking on this fresh journey. The two appointments will enable me
to continue doing what I know best; rendering public service and using
my financial and economist skills.
"I thank the international community for the recognition and continued
support. I am also grateful for the prayers and support of many
Nigerians."
GAVI is a $12 billion multilateral partnership which disburses grants
of upwards of $1.8 billion annually to developing countries for
immunization programmes.
GAVI brings together developing countries and donor governments, the
World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine
industry in both industrialized and developing countries, research and
technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and other private philanthropists.
GAVI is funded by governments of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark,
France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the People's Republic of
China, Republic of Korea, Russia, South Africa, Spain, the State of
Qatar, the Sultanate of Oman, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United
States as well as the European Commission, the OPEC Fund for
International Development (OFID) and other institutional and corporate
partners.
It would be recalled that, from 2000-2015, GAVI disbursed $425m in
grants to Nigeria, an average of about $30m per annum for vaccination
and immunization of children, including polio vaccines.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala succeeds Dagfinn Høybråten, a former Norwegian
Minister of Health and current Secretary General of the Nordic Council
of Ministers as Chair of GAVI.
Previous Chairs include Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and
respected education activist and former First Lady of South Africa,
Graca Machel.
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