President Paul Kagame arrived in Paris on Thursday, June 20, to attend the Global Forum for Vaccine Sovereignty and Innovation, during which he will deliver remarks.

The forum, co-hosted by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in partnership with France and the African Union (AU), will see the launch of Gavi’s investment opportunity, setting out the impact and targets for its work to support and sustain immunisation from 2026 to 2030 and the funding required for its work.

The forum will see the launch of the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), a unique financing instrument in support of building sustainable vaccine manufacturing on the African continent.

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The meeting, which has brought together Heads of State, ministers, as well as leaders from civil society, industry and international organisation, will see participants make commitments and pledges.

Gavi, which has helped to immunise up to one billion children around the world since 2,000 and preventing over 17 million deaths, said it will accelerate its impact in the coming years and support the AU’s efforts in vaccine manufacturing.

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"As a result of the learnings of the COVID-19 pandemic and its experience with innovative finance instruments, Gavi, in close collaboration with the African Union, Africa CDC, G7 and G20, designed AVMA, which will provide at least US$1 billion in support of the AU’s vision for African vaccine manufacturing,” the organisation said.

Rwanda plans to start manufacturing vaccines, thanks to a partnership with BioNTech, which saw the establishment of an mRNA plant in Kigali.