The Financial Sustainability of New Vaccine Introduction in the Poorest Countries - Evidence from the First Phase of Gavi

Abstract

In its first phase of support, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) sought to address the question of financial sustainability of new vaccine introduction in a systematic way. It has done so by first requiring that all countries receiving GAVI Fund grants commit to preparing a detailed Financial Sustainability Plan (FSP) that would ensure the transition to other sources of financing after the end of the initial commitments from the GAVI Fund. Secondly, GAVI developed and supported the use of financial sustainability planning guidelines and costing tool to help national decision makers estimate current cost and financing patterns of their immunization programmes, project forward both future costs and prospects for financing, and defining and initiating implementation of a strategy for mobilizing resources, reducing unnecessary costs, and making the flow of future funding more reliable. For GAVI, the financial sustainability plan was designed to ensure that every country receiving GAVI Fund support had a reasonable and feasible road map towards financial sustainability. The purpose of this session is to review the assumptions of the GAVI model of financing during its first phase of support (2000-2005); review key findings from the financial sustainability plans for new vaccine introduction in the poorest countries; and discuss the methodological lessons from the use of the FSP costing tool at country level. This session will be based on the analysis of a set of 50 low income countries, and where retrospective and prospective data on immunization expenditures by cost component, and financial flows by financing source will be presented. Will also be discussed is how this wealth of new information has improved global understanding of the size of the financing challenges when it comes to scaling up immunization efforts, and the strategies countries and their development partners would need to employ to meet those challenges.