What is Gavi?
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is an organisation that improves access to vaccines for the world’s most vulnerable children. It was founded in 2000 with the aim of “saving lives, reducing poverty and protecting the world against the threat of epidemics”. The organisation provides vaccines against 17 of the most common and deadly diseases (including polio, typhoid, measles, meningitis and yellow fever) and works in partnership with the public and private sectors to carry out this mission (1).
The stakes around vaccination are crucial: more than 1.5 million people (a third of them children) die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases. Nearly 20 million children still do not have access to basic vaccines, while nearly a quarter of child deaths are due to pneumonia and diarrhoea.
Over the past 20 years, Gavi has helped vaccinate 760 million children and saved more than 13 million lives. Currently, the organisation vaccinates nearly half of the world’s children (2), making it one of the most effective global health initiatives. Without Gavi, millions of people would not be protected today against certain deadly diseases. Gavi is therefore an essential tool to improve everyone’s health everywhere in the world.
Beyond health
Gavi’s actions also have an impact well beyond health. Vaccines reduce child mortality rates. They also allow healthy children to access quality education and then take part in their country’s development, thus helping to reduce poverty. In addition to health results, Gavi’s actions also have positive economic spin-offs. Indeed, a person who falls ill creates costs for the State. These can be small costs such as transport or treatment, but also larger ones, such as potential loss of productivity later in life due to disability or death. By preventing these costs, Gavi helped generate more than $150 billion in economic benefits between 2000 and 2017.
How does it work?
Gavi’s interventions are made possible by a three-pronged approach:
1- Gavi funds the purchase of vaccines. The funds Gavi receives from donors go directly to ensuring that low-income countries have the vaccines they need.
2- Gavi helps strengthen countries’ vaccination programmes and their health systems in general. Gavi funds the strengthening of developing countries’ health systems (3). Gavi also pushes countries to take part in financing the vaccines they need, according to their national wealth (4). This makes it possible to build sustainable health systems that, in time, will no longer need Gavi’s support.
3- Gavi intervenes in the vaccine market to increase supply and lower prices. The organisation works directly with vaccine suppliers to produce vaccines at lower cost, making them more accessible to the poorest. In doing so, Gavi has considerably reduced vaccine prices and made the market more accessible. For example, the cost of fully vaccinating a child (pentavalent, pneumococcal and rotavirus vaccines) has fallen by 21% since 2015.
These three approaches help create a sustainable vaccination programme in each country supported by Gavi.
What is at stake in this year’s replenishment
This year, we have the opportunity to help Gavi continue its life-saving work. Gavi’s next replenishment will take place in London on 3 and 4 June, with the ambitious goal of reaching at least $7.4 billion in additional funding for 2021-2025.
If Gavi reaches this goal, it will be a key step towards making vaccines accessible to everyone, everywhere in the world. This replenishment will allow Gavi and its partners to vaccinate 300 million people and save up to 8 million additional lives by 2025. Gavi will also invest this money in strengthening health systems, in order to improve care in general and thus allow more people to be vaccinated.
France’s contribution
France is a historic player in global health and stands out for its political and financial commitment. It is Gavi’s fifth-largest historic sovereign contributor. Its contribution to Gavi has helped save 700,000 lives, vaccinate nearly 41 million children and save more than $8 billion thanks to vaccination.
ONE’s request: we ask that France renew its previous contribution of €250 million for 2021-2025. This would:
• catalyse $106 million in country contributions
• generate between $2.3 and $2.9 billion in economic benefits over 2021-2025.
Renewing the French contribution at Gavi’s next replenishment is therefore essential to confirm French leadership in global health and contribute to achieving the priorities of its development policy.
1 The organisation works with non-profits, advocacy organisations, governments, vaccine manufacturers, researchers and many others to improve access to vaccines in every possible way.
2 Gavi funds vaccines for countries where 60% of children are born each year and vaccinates 49.2% of children worldwide. Source: data on Gavi’s website. See: https://www.gavi.org/programmes-impact/our-impact/facts-and-figures
3 To reach the poorest children, Gavi is stepping up its efforts, investing in training health workers and improving logistics while improving data collection and management, as well as health leadership.
4 Gavi indeed makes the supply of vaccines and its grants conditional on financial commitments from recipient countries. These co-financing amounts increase as the country progresses economically.