Based on our current priorities and what we have learned to date about Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), we do not believe it meets our criteria at this time. This is a shallow review of Gavi, which we are sharing because it lays out our current view. We did not complete a full, in-depth review. To read more on how we decide which charities to review in-depth and why we recommend so few charities, see this blog post.
More information: What is our evaluation process?
Published: July 2018 (2009 review, 2012 update)
Summary
What do they do? Gavi supports immunization programs in very poor countries.
Why did we consider Gavi for a recommendation? Immunization programs have strong evidence of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.
What was our process? We have had several conversations with people at Gavi and considered it for a recommendation several times in GiveWell's history.
What is the status of our evaluation? We do not believe that Gavi has room for more funding. This conclusion solely focuses on additional funding beyond what it currently receives.
Table of Contents
What do they do?
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi, www.gavi.org/), formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, is a partnership of actors from the public and private sectors who support immunization programs in very poor countries.1 It was founded in 2000 with a $750 million donation from the Gates Foundation.2 Gavi receives funding from a wide range of organizations including many major donor governments.3 For the 2016-2020 period, it has received approximately $9.2 billion in donor contributions and pledges.4
Gavi currently supports the provision of 13 vaccines.5 To do so, it partners with the vaccine industry, the private sector, civil society, governments and multilateral agencies such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the World Bank.6 It undertakes a wide range of activities to achieve four main goals: increase the uptake of vaccines, improve the efficiency of immunization delivery, improve the sustainability of national immunization programs, and shape vaccine markets.7 To understand where Gavi lies in the immunization funding landscape, see this page, which outlines what we had learned as of November 2012.
Why did we consider Gavi for a recommendation?
Gavi supports immunization programs, which have strong evidence of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, two of our key criteria. See, for example, our reports on supplementary immunization activities to prevent illness caused by the measles virus, immunization campaigns to prevent maternal and neonatal tetanus, and mass immunization programs to provide meningococcal A conjugate vaccines.
What was our process?
- In 2011, we spoke extensively with Gavi and reached the conclusion that it did not have room for more funding to directly scale up immunization activities (see our December 2011 blog post).
- In 2012, we put significant additional effort into trying to find ways donors could pay for further delivery of immunizations and failed to find promising funding gaps (see this blog post for details).
- More recently, we have followed publicly available information about Gavi's funding and have had several conversations with people at Gavi (though these conversations touched only briefly directly on how Gavi, the institution, would use additional funding).
What is the status of our evaluation?
Added May 19, 2020: This page was published in July 2018. It does not take into account funding Gavi could need due to additional costs for essential vaccines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also does not take into account funding Gavi could need to deliver an eventual COVID-19 vaccine.
Our best guess is that Gavi does not currently have room for more funding. This conclusion solely focuses on additional funding beyond what it currently receives.
Sources
- 1
"Gavi is an international organisation - a global Vaccine Alliance, bringing together public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world's poorest countries." Gavi website "About"
- 2
"...with the help of a US$750 million five-year pledge from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in January 2000 the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation was created." Gavi website "Mission"
- 3
- "As a public-private partnership, Gavi is funded by governments, corporations, foundations and private individuals." Gavi website "Donor Profiles".
- On its donor profile webpage, Gavi lists 26 donor governments as well as the European Commission.
- 4
- Gavi presents a bar chart representing total donor contributions and pledges for the 2016-2020 period on the 2016-2020 tab at the following webpage: Gavi website "Donor contributions and pledges".
- This figure is "comprised of total contributions received and outstanding pledges to Gavi as of 31 December 2017. Total figures...do not include in-kind contributions." Gavi website "Donor contributions and pledges"
- 5
"Gavi currently supports 13 life-saving vaccines." Gavi website "Vaccine support"
- 6
"...our Alliance represents all the key stakeholders in global immunisation: implementing and donor governments, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, civil society, the vaccine industry, research agencies and private companies." Gavi Annual Progress Report 2016, p.4.
- 7
"The 2016-2020 strategy has four goals, each supporting our overall mission: 'to save children's lives and protect people's health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries':
- The vaccine goal: accelerate equitable uptake and coverage of vaccines.
- The systems goal: increase effectiveness and efficiency of immunisation delivery as an integrated part of strengthened health systems.
- The sustainability goal: improve sustainability of national immunisation programs.
- The market shaping goal: shape markets for vaccines and other immunisation products."