GAVI's Future

Next week, the GAVI Alliance will ask donors to commit $3.7 billion to immunize an additional 250 million children by 2015. Now, as GAVI prepares for its next decade of progress under new leadership, is an opportune moment to examine critical challenges and how they can be addressed to ensure continued success. This policy brief, developed collaboratively by the CSIS Global Health Policy Center and the Center for Global Development provides analysis and recommendations to GAVI leadership in three vital issue areas: GAVI’s mandate and business model; its financing strategy; and the GAVI Secretariat and partners’ capacities.

Its many achievements notwithstanding, GAVI will need a strengthened, strategic approach to meet future demands. In the midst of a global recession and constrained donor and national budgets, and as the vaccine landscape expands and becomes more complex, GAVI will need to concentrate on its core mission, extend coverage to the underserved in low-income countries, plan strategically for the future, better tie health systems investments to vaccine gains, and test whether GAVI can contribute to assisting lower-middle-income countries accelerate their immunizations. It is essential that GAVI’s financing efforts shape markets to reduce vaccine pricing, at the same time that GAVI aggressively leverages traditional donors, wins over emerging economies, and increases partner government commitments. The GAVI Secretariat can and should do more to maximize its partnerships with UNICEF, the World Bank, and WHO, and GAVI will benefit significantly from much stronger branding, communications, and high-level outreach and representation.