GAVI partners meet in Vietnam

Nov 22nd, 2009 3:18 PM UTC
By Nora Coghlan

Over 400 representatives from ministries of health, donor countries, civil society and the global vaccine industry gathered in Hanoi, Vietnam this week for the GAVI Alliance’s Partnership Forum. GAVI (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations) will celebrate its 10th Anniversary in 2010, making this month a good time to take stock of progress made and assess the challenges that lie ahead for the Alliance.

From a sheer numbers standpoint, GAVI has achieved some impressive results. In 2000, GAVI was launched with a start-up grant of $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to increase access to new and underused vaccines in low-income countries. Since then, GAVI has been able to raise resources through a number of donors and innovative funding streams, enabling it to immunize 257 million children against a variety of diseases and prevent an estimated 4 million child deaths.

Beyond these numbers, GAVI has also demonstrated something a bit less tangible: the impact of a market-based approach. GAVI was originally launched as a “different” type of financing mechanism, with a mission to not just purchase and deliver vaccines but to shape the global market to make vaccines more affordable and accessible in the world’s poorest countries. GAVI secures long-term funding and aggregates demand to incentivize manufacturers to develop vaccines that are relevant for the world’s poorest countries. As you may have seen in our clips on Monday, new data show that this approach has been successful: prices for the pentavalent vaccine (called the five-in-one shot) are predicted to fall by 22% by 2012, and by 50 cents between 2009 and 2010 alone. According to GAVI, this drop translates to approximately $55 million in savings, which will help finance the immunization of 6.3 million more children in 2010.

In addition to taking stock of these achievements, GAVI partners used this week to explore some of the difficulties that lie ahead. GAVI’s biggest challenge- a substantial financing gap for 2010 and beyond- is a by-product the Alliance’s success over the past ten years. By helping poor countries strengthen their vaccination programs and improve financing proposals, the demand for financing through GAVI has increased significantly. Moreover, GAVI was the main force behind the development of two new vaccines, the pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines, which will tackle the two biggest killers of children worldwide. GAVI was pivotal in ensuring that these two vaccines were ready to be delivered in developing countries much sooner than the 15 years it takes (on average) for a typical vaccine to reach developing countries. Much of GAVI’s funding needs over the next four years will go towards delivering these new vaccines, which together could prevent more than 11 million child deaths by 2030.

We’ll keep you in the loop on any major outcomes that emerge from GAVI’s Partners’ Forum and about the Alliance’s efforts to mobilize new resources over the coming months. Along with the Global Fund (which is also facing a massive funding gap this year), GAVI is one of the main mechanisms funding health priorities in the developing world, and will be a key player in helping poor countries meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

TAGS: GAVI, Policy News