Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is the leading global funder of immunization programs, providing financial support to developing countries to support their own immunization work. Gavi’s replenishment conference in 2015 secured US$7.5 billion for programs to immunize an additional 300 million children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases by 2020. In addition to providing financial support for vaccine purchases, a significant share of Gavi’s programmatic budget goes as direct financial support to countries to cover a variety of investment and operational costs.

After approving its 2016-2020 strategy, Gavi initiated a policy review of this direct financial support to countries to ensure that resources invested optimally contributed to the achievement of Gavi’s strategic  goals, and to strengthen Gavi’s resource-allocation model across countries.  

SEEK’s work focused on supporting Gavi’s Secretariat and the responsible committee of its Board to develop and test emerging policy options and in facilitating effective stakeholder consultation. This included laying out an overall project approach to organize the review, a desk review of available evidence and previous recommendations, preparation and facilitation of interviews and steering committee meetings, and the development of a quantitative model to assess options for revisions to the resource allocation formula.

The work resulted in concrete policy recommendations including the consolidation of multiple separate funding streams and an improved formula for allocating Gavi’s support to countries. Gavi’s Board adopted these recommendations in 2016 and the new policy is being successfully implemented.