on 20 September 2015. which led to the launch of containment efforts for type 2 wild poliovirus. The GCC certified the global eradication of wild poliovirus type 3 (WPV3) at its 20th meeting on 17 October 2019. Wild poliovirus type 1 is the only type of wild poliovirus that remains uninterrupted globally. The GCC held its 21st meeting in July 2021. Structure The Global Certification Commission is the top-level decision-making body of a three-tier process. Each WHO member state's national polio program appoints a National Certification Committee (NCC). These NCCs meet annually until national certification to report on the status of national polio surveillance and elimination. A country is regarded as polio free or non-endemic if no cases have been detected by high-quality surveillance for a year. The Regional Certification Committees (RCC) meet annually until regional certification to evaluate the reports from the NCCs. The six RCCs, which are panels of WHO-appointed experts who are independent of both the NCCs and the GPEI, are charged with certification of their WHO region. The chairs of the six regional committees comprise the Global Certification Commission, which meets as needed for global decision making. Regional certification The Region of the Americas certified polio eradication in 1994. As part of the regional certification process, the expert committee established the criteria of "verification of the absence of virologically confirmed indigenous poliomyelitis cases in the Americas for a period of at least 3 years under circumstances of adequate surveillance," which the GCC adopted as its criteria at its first meeting. The criteria for adequate surveillance included finding and examining at least one case of nonpolio acute flaccid paralysis per 100,000 children under 15 years old. A statistical analysis of regional data and mathematical infection transmission modeling supported the criteria. The modeling showed that with a perfect surveillance system, any wild poliovirus transmission would be detected within 3–4 years with very high (e.g., 95%) confidence. With the criteria established, the GCC resolved to certify each of the remaining regions until the disease was eradicated globally. The Western Pacific regional certification occurred in 2000 and Europe certified polio eradication in 2002. The Southeast Asia region certified polio eradication in 2014. In 1996, African nations signed the Yaoundé Declaration on Polio Eradication in Africa, and Nelson Mandela started the "Kick Polio out of Africa" campaign. In Africa, the most recent region to certify polio eradication in 2020, regional certification