What happens when you fund immunizations in the world’s poorest countries?
In November 2011 the GAVI Alliance Board requested that the Secretariat begin to investigate a more flexible policy to address how GAVI will support fragile or low-performing countries. Under varying criteria, 44 of the 57 GAVI-eligible countries were categorized as "fragile" using at least one criteria. Fragility, under the draft document, could include anything from political instability to humanitarian disaster, or be based on immunization-related circumstances like a devolved health system or vast inequalities in immunization coverage.
Under these circumstances a country's ability to roll-out new or underutilized vaccines, reliably fulfill co-financing agreements, or successfully submit proposals to GAVI may be jeopordized.
ACTION welcomes the opportunity to consult on the draft country-by-country policy which expands the number of country-specific strategizies GAVI already has, and looks forward to submitting our feedback.
If you have thoughts on the draft policy and wish to join ACTION's consultation, please contact Alison Root.
If you'd like to learn more about ACTION's work on inequalities in immunization coverage, please read our report.