Lilongwe, 1 June 2022 – Ted Chaiban, the Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP), arrived in the country today for a three-day official visit.

Mr Chaiban will engage in joint high-level advocacy meetings with the government, development partners, and other key stakeholders to support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccination coverage and ensure that the response to COVID-19 remains a top priority for Malawi.

“This visit to Malawi is also to introduce the Global Partnership for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery to country stakeholders. Together, we will take stock of the COVID-19 vaccination programme rollout and progress in Malawi, get insights on the main bottlenecks to the scale-up of the programme and identify solutions and entry points to address them,” he said.

“Malawi’s situation is a critical one. The country isn’t just exposed to the risk of COVID-19, especially at a time where rates are rising again in Southern Africa – it has faced simultaneous outbreaks of other deadly diseases including cholera and the first case of wild polio since 1992. We are looking to find ways in which we can join up resources to address COVID-19 in the near term while ensuring that we build the systems needed to make the country more resilient to the public health emergencies of the future,” he continued.

Mr Chaiban will meet non-government and civil society organizations, religious leaders, health workers and partners. He will visit the Kasungu district to observe and appreciate key COVID-19 vaccination activities implemented by the District Health authorities.

Mr Chaiban was appointed as CoVDP Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Country Readiness and Delivery, at the level of Assistant Secretary-General, in February 2022 by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

Note to editors:

COVID-19 Vaccination Update As of April 2022, more than 11.7 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered globally. According to the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership’s Situation Report of April 2022, 59 per cent of the world population have been vaccinated and only 13 per cent in low-income countries. The WHO Africa and Eastern Mediterranean regions account for the largest proportion of unvaccinated for the total population. In Malawi, the COVID-19 vaccination programme started on 11 March 2021. About 1.2 million Malawians (9%) have been vaccinated with the first dose and 1.1 million (8.4%) have been fully vaccinated with two doses to date.

About Ted Chaiban Ted Chaiban has a long and illustrious career with UNICEF. He has been Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa since October 2019. Prior to this role, he was UNICEF Director of Programmes (2014-2019), Director of Emergency Programmes (2012-2014), UNICEF Representative in Ethiopia (2009-2012) in Sudan (2005-2009) Sri Lanka (2002-2005). Read his full bio here.

About COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP) The COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP) is an inter-agency initiative led by UNICEF, WHO and Gavi in January 2022 to support the 92 AMC countries in accelerating vaccine delivery with a particular focus on the 34 countries, including Malawi, that were at or below 10 per cent in January 2022.

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