The International Vaccine Institute (IVI), an international organization that works to discover and develop vaccines announced on Tuesday, February 27, that it will open its Africa Regional Office in Kigali this year.
This comes days after Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha announced that Kenya had won the bid to host the IVI regional offices.
In a statement, IVI confirmed that the decision to settle for Kigali as the host for its regional office was reached earlier in the month in a meeting between its officials and those from Rwanda’s Ministry of Health.
As per the statement, the decision was informed by findings of a detailed evaluation of proposals from five countries, among them Kenya which had expressed its interest to host the vaccine developer.
“The IVI Board of Trustees (BOT) confirmed Rwanda as the location for IVI’s Africa Regional Office at a meeting in February, following a detailed evaluation of proposals from five countries to host the regional office,” IVI announced in a statement on Tuesday.
IVI officials praise Kigali
In his remarks, IVI’s Director General Dr. Jerome Kim described Kigali as an “excellent home” for its regional offices, adding that the institution was proud of the support Rwanda’s Health Ministry had shown towards the proposed offices.
According to the Director General, the new office will play a pivotal role in providing on-the-ground support and leadership for IVI’s work in Africa. He went on to state the new office will target to increase engagement and coordination with stakeholders from Africa in a bid to ensure access to quality and affordable vaccines.
“We look forward to joining the growing ecosystem of vaccine R&D partners on the continent and continuing our work with local and regional collaborators to support sustainable vaccine manufacturing,” he noted.
“IVI’s regional office in Africa has found an excellent home in Kigali and we are proud to have the support of the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the University of Rwanda, which will be a critical technical partner.”
On his part, Rwanda’s Health Minister Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana welcomed the announcement, noting that “Rwanda is taking a leap in bridging the vaccine equity gap on the African continent by venturing into local production of vaccines, therapeutics and other life-saving medical products.”
“Hosting the IVI Africa regional office is yet another milestone towards a resilient Africa with regard to potential public health emergencies and we are honored to serve as its host,” he noted.
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IVI decision deals blow to Ruto’s plan
Speaking before the Health Committee in the National Assembly, CS Nakhumicha had announced that Kenya had won the bid to host the IVI regional offices after successfully bidding during the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia in mid-February.
According to her, hosting the institute’s offices would help to strengthen Kenya’s readiness to combat epidemics, pandemics and other outbreaks.
The decision to pick Kigali could also deal a blow to President William Ruto who has been on record pushing African countries to assume a leading role in vaccine development.
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In his speech during the AU Assembly, President Ruto affirmed Kenya’s commitment to facilitating vaccine development through actions and allocation of resources.
“I stand before you to confirm that you can count on Kenya to translate this commitment into decisive actions and visible results in the coming months,” the President stated in his speech in Addis Ababa.
“The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the dire state of Africa’s pharmaceutical manufacturing, including that of vaccines. We were the last continent to access Covid-19 vaccines, and suffered greatly from ‘vaccine nationalism’,” he stated to affirm the importance of developing vaccines.
