News & insights

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched in January 2017 against the backdrop of recent outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and in particular the West African Ebola epidemic. This outbreak showed that the vaccine development ecosystem – and specifically Research and Development (R&D) – was not responding to emerging threats. In response, CEPI was created as an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to accelerate the development of vaccines against EIDs and enable equitable access to these vaccines for affected populations during outbreaks. Over its first strategic period (2017-21) CEPI has focused on a number of EIDs, including pivoting substantially on COVID-19 vaccines from the early days of the pandemic.

CEPA was appointed to conduct an Independent Outcome Evaluation to assess CEPI 1.0 in terms of its effects on society (i.e., the impact of CEPI’s activities and investments), the sustainability of the results achieved, and the main lessons learned from CEPI’s first five years. This evaluation contributes to the record of CEPI’s progress and impact during CEPI 1.0, and its findings aim to identify areas for improvement and inform the implementation of CEPI’s strategic period (‘CEPI 2.0’).

Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI, reflects on the final report of the Independent Outcome Evaluation of CEPI’s first five-year business cycle: “There is much to be proud of that is captured and accurately reflected in the Report. The core conclusions of the Report serve as an endorsement of the Founders’ perspicacity….However, the report also provides a frank assessment of where CEPI has not fully achieved its ambitions…I believe it represents a fair, balanced, and independent perspective on CEPI’s growth and performance during this critical formative period.  It offers instruction and sound recommendations for improvement as we continue building CEPI into the organization that we want it to be.”

The final evaluation report together with the response from CEPI's management has now been published on CEPI’s website.