The GAVI Alliance was set-up in 2000 to save children's lives and protect people's health by increasing access to immunisation in developing countries
Increasing access to immunisations
In January 2000, with global immunisation rates stagnating, the the GAVI Alliance was launched to fund vaccines for children in developing countries. Its mission: to save children's lives and protect people's health by increasing access to immunisation in the world's poorest countries.
By pulling the specialist skills of all the main players in immunisation - WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, donor governments, developing countries, international development and finance organisations and the pharmaceutical industry - into one decision-making body, GAVI has brought a single-minded focus to the urgent task of closing three critical gaps in the provision of vaccines:
- between children for whom immunisation is a given and the 23.2 million children worldwide with no access to vaccines;
- between the introduction of a new vaccine in industrialised countries and the average 10-15 years required for the same vaccine to reach low-income countries;
- between the need for new vaccines in developing countries and the lack of research and funds to provide them.
Since its launch in 2000, the GAVI Alliance has helped prevent more than five and half million future deaths and helped protect 288 million additional children with new and under-used vaccines.
GAVI Alliance programmes
IFFIm funding is channelled through GAVI programmes to reduce the number of vaccine-preventable deaths among children under five in developing countries. There are two key areas where these resources can have a substantial and immediate impact:
These two funding streams are inextricably linked as substantial funding to support health systems is needed to ensure that the eligible countries are able to expand access to the traditional vaccines and manage and deliver the new vaccines.
