On September 29, 2020, José Manuel Durão Barroso, Director of Centro de Estudos Europeus at Instituto de Estudos Plíticos (IEP) of Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), was appointed president of the Global Alliance for Vaccines (GAVI), an organization that is currently of great importance due to the pandemic caused by covid-19.

The appointment of the former Portuguese prime minister was unanimously approved by GAVI's Board of Directors at a meeting in Geneva, according to a statement from the organization, and in January 2021, Mr. Barroso will take up this unpaid position, replacing Nigerian economist and former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, whose term expires in December 2020.

The Council's Investigation Commission indicates that the decisive factors in choosing Mr. Barroso for the position are his "outstanding status and experience," his record of leadership, his commitment to international cooperation and his experience as president of various institutions.

In the GAVI communiqué, Barroso said that in the worst pandemic of the century, "the world needs GAVI now more than ever, both to ensure that covid-19 vaccines reach all countries, rich and poor, and to pursue its core mission of protecting hundreds of millions of people from preventable diseases.