Launched in 2000 at the World Economic Forum, Gavi is a public-private partnership of national governments, multilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations and the private sector to vaccinate children in the world’s poorest countries.
Since its inception, Gavi has helped to vaccinate more than 760 million children, preventing more than 13 million deaths worldwide from illnesses such as hepatitis, pneumonia, measles, meningitis, diarrhoea, rubella, yellow fever, liver cancer and cervical cancer. It helps partner countries to pay for vaccines and organise national immunisation programmes and plays a key role in shaping the global market for vaccines.
To date the UK has committed £4 billion to Gavi, making it Gavi’s largest funder. For Gavi’s next five-year phase, the UK has announced that it will contribute £1.65 billion across 2021 to 2025 (the equivalent to £330m a year), including existing pledges made during the previous funding period.
This information note provides background on the UK’s relationship with Gavi and on the development case for investing in Gavi, with a brief discussion of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a factual information note, it is not evaluative and does not make any recommendations. It concludes by suggesting a number of lines of enquiry that the International Development Committee may wish to pursue.