Innovative finance at the core: Ken Lay spotlights the evolution of vaccine bonds at Gavi Global Summit
Innovative finance at the core: Ken Lay spotlights the evolution of vaccine bonds at Gavi Global Summit
23 September 2025
IFFIm Board Director Ken Lay at the Global Summit: Health & Prosperity through Immunisation in Brussels on 25 June 2025.
At the recent Global Summit: Health & Prosperity through Immunisation, IFFIm Board Chair Ken Lay joined an influential panel exploring the future of financing for global immunisation.
At the recent Global Summit: Health & Prosperity through Immunisation, IFFIm Board Chair Ken Lay joined an influential panel exploring the future of financing for global immunisation. Titled “Innovative Finance at the Core – What’s Next for Gavi?”, the session brought together leaders from government, development finance, and global health to discuss how bold financial tools are reshaping how we protect the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Mr. Lay, representing IFFIm, the International Finance Facility for Immunisation, shared how engaging capital markets through vaccine bonds has evolved over two decades to become one of the largest and most impactful financial innovations in global health. His remarks underscored how IFFIm’s model of predictable, frontloaded financing continues to save lives and adapt to today’s more complex challenges, including rising fragility, climate threats, and the need for resilient health systems.
“The future of immunisation financing isn’t just about raising more capital,” Lay emphasised. “It’s about deploying it smarter: Faster, fairer, and with flexibility to meet the moment.”
This theme resonated throughout the panel, which also featured Francesca Manno of the Italian Ministry of Finance, highlighting Italy’s leadership in co-developing tools like IFFIm, the Pneumococcal AMC, and the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA); Fahad Al Sulaiti of the Qatar Fund for Development; Andrew McDowell of the European Development Bank’s EIB Global, who spoke on the power of guarantees and blending; and Michael Anderson of MedAccess, who unveiled new risk-sharing tools to unlock better health markets. South African journalist Nzinga Qunta moderated the forward-looking panel. Participants explored provocative questions: Could vaccine bonds respond to climate or epidemic triggers? How can we integrate health financing with climate adaptation and resilience strategies?
As traditional aid models strain under new demands, Ken Lay’s voice was a strong reminder that innovative finance must remain central to Gavi’s future, not only sustaining past achievements but enabling the next leap in immunisation equity.
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