Marie Ange (right) with Bank of Ireland UK’s Sara Holland (centre) and Jo Thomson (left).
What makes an effective and compelling collaboration between business and global health organisations? This was the key question in last week’s #InspriringPartnerships Twitter chat hosted by Bank of Ireland UK, which featured Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s Managing Director of Resource Mobilisation.

Marie Ange (centre) at the end of the takeover at the Bank of Ireland’s London office.
Employees from across Bank of Ireland UK, global health Tweeters and colleagues from Gavi posed Marie-Ange a series of questions as she took over the @BankOfIrelandUK Twitter handle. Over the following hour, she shared her experiences working in partnership with the private sector, shining light on everything from the basics of global health teamwork to cutting edge technology and innovation.
Gavi and Bank of Ireland UK have been working together as part of the Bank’s Inspiring Partnerships initiative. Working with the philosophers at The School of Life, Bank of Ireland UK looked at six different ingredients that make partnerships successful, creating a series of videos of real-world Inspiring Partnerships. Gavi was featured in these videos, telling the story of how Khushi Baby and Gavi initiated a project in rural Rajasthan whereby special vaccine tracking necklaces were given to 1,500 children, with medical teams accessing the data and going to the region with the exact medical supplies needed. You can see the full video here.
Here are a few highlights from the joint conversation:
Why are partnerships important for global health and vaccination in particular?
They are crucial to help @Gavi leverage investment & expertise to modernize immunisation systems & reach kids wherever they are. INFUSE is 1 way #InspiringPartnerships come about – it was primarily launched to identify & vet needed innovations to scale solutions in countries
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
.@Gavi was founded with an innovative approach to ensuring #vaccineswork for children in every country through market shaping. Thinking of new ways to reach all children with vaccines is essential for leapfrogging progress & saving lives faster #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
Banks have a whole set of extended networks & systems, which can be used for social mobilisation and awareness of childhood immunisation. For example, that's what we've been doing with @FundlaCaixa for the past 10 years #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
Since 2000, we have immunised 640 million children and with a plan to immunise an additional 300 million by 2020: https://t.co/F1Ff7mqXZV #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
What does an inspiring partnership look like?
One good example was our partnership bringing together @GoogleOrg & @nexleaf to provide real-time #data monitoring of the fridges that keep vaccines cool & effective around the world:https://t.co/vLUAWXEt90 #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
Hard to say, since some of our best collaborations have come from unexpected places, but our CEO @GaviSeth visited Silicon Valley last year to explore partnerships with #tech innovators, which I know could be transformative: https://t.co/nBxn86wMEs #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
.@teamkhushibaby knew their necklace (simple device carrying vaccine records) worked, but they needed support to scale up. Together we made that happen in record time, making sure that #vaccineswork for more kids in India. Read morehttps://t.co/QsTjalyYl6 #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
The @teamkhushibaby necklace costs less than $1, and they are not handed out in isolation – they're used in health facilities by health community workers (similar to midwives). If you'd like to sponsor them, get in touch @GaviMarieAnge #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
How can new partners get involved?
Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in Immunisation (INFUSE) is @Gavi’s innovation community (backed by @CanadaDev & @UAE_MICAD) that connects tried and tested #tech innovations to scale to the countries that need them mosthttps://t.co/vFhRceU4dT #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
This year we’re calling on companies to pitch their digital identity solutions to us, which we’re envisaging as the future of vaccination cards & which could be an important foundation for universal health coverage too. https://t.co/DkCylTwVZU #ID2020 #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
Businesses bring a wealth of of experience that we need to save lives. Apply to INFUSE before 10 April & you can be part of solving serious vaccine challenges ➡ https://t.co/DkCylTwVZU #InspiringPartnerships
— Bank of Ireland UK (@BankofIrelandUK) March 29, 2018
If you have further questions about Gavi’s work with partners, reach out on Twitter @Gavi & @GaviMarieAnge.
You can find out more about Gavi’s INFUSE initiative here, and more about Bank of Ireland’s Inspiring Partnerships series here.