Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi with Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO is coordinating the development and implementation of AMC COVAX, the financing instrument that will support the participation of 92 lower-middle and low-income economies in the COVAX facility. The COVAX AMC is critical to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of the income level of beneficiaries. This activity includes the infrastructure and technical support necessary to make sure COVID-19 vaccines can be safely delivered to all those who need them. Gavi is also part of the health systems work of the ACT-Accelerator effort, focusing on areas where it has expertise and experience, such as cold chain.

Gavi with Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO is coordinating the development and implementation of AMC COVAX, the financing instrument that will support the participation of 92 lower-middle and low-income economies in the COVAX facility. The COVAX AMC is critical to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, regardless of the income level of beneficiaries. This activity includes the infrastructure and technical support necessary to make sure COVID-19 vaccines can be safely delivered to all those who need them. Gavi is also part of the health systems work of the ACT-Accelerator effort, focusing on areas where it has expertise and experience, such as cold chain.

Parent Activity of Gavi's Support to Nepal At this level, Joint Appraisal, Country Multi Year Plan, Annual Progress Report are provided as supporting documents. In 2020/2021, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Multi-stakeholder dialogue (MSD) documents temporarily replaced the traditional Joint Appraisal to ensure that Gavi’s continuing support to the EPI programme be aligned with realities at country level. For details on each vaccine please refer to child activities.

Targeted country assistance (TCA) are resources provided to in-country partners under Gavi’s partners’ engagement framework (PEF). A country’s TCA plan is based on needs expressed by the country during the joint appraisal discussions. It includes sets of activities, milestones and budget for a given year.Technical assistance is non-financial support provided by specialists. It can take the form of sharing information and expertise, training and consulting services. The technical assistance provided through PEF is called targeted country assistance (TCA). This type of support mainly consists of staff permanently based in partners’ country offices. It is based on the demand and needs identified by the countries themselves.

Combining five different vaccines in a single vial, pentavalent vaccine brings cost savings in terms of equipment, delivery and disposal programmes. When Gavi set out to catalyse the adoption of new vaccines in low-income countries in 2000, Hib was top of its priority list. The vaccine had existed since the early 1990s, but by 2000, only one low-income country had introduced the vaccine into its national immunisation programme. As a result, support for routine immunisation against Hib was immediately made available through Gavi. Initially, Gavi-eligible countries were slow to take up the offer of support for Hib vaccine, both because of limited awareness of Hib's disease burden and concerns about the cost of the vaccine. By 2004, four years after the Hib vaccine had become part of Gavi's vaccine portfolio, only 15 countries out of the 74 eligible countries had been approved for Hib vaccine support. Initially, Gavi provided support for hepatitis B (hepB) monovalent vaccine. However, in December 2005, the Gavi Board decided only to accept new applications for hepB vaccine support through combination vaccines (tetravalent and pentavalent).

GAVI’s support for new vaccines presents an opportunity for countries to not only implement vaccines that protect against diseases causing substantial morbidity and/or mortality, but also to build upon the vaccine investments in order to increase immunisation coverage rates, and strengthen routine immunisation services and primary health care systems. Rotavirus vaccine protects children against rotavirus disease and the severe and deadly diarrhoea that it causes in children. WHO recommends that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunization programmes, and the use of rotavirus vaccines should be part of a comprehensive strategy to control diarrhoeal diseases. Two oral rotavirus vaccines are currently available for routine infant immunisation with GAVI support: a two-dose schedule and the three-dose schedule vaccine.