It has been 16 years since IFFIm started to fund immunisation programmes in support of Gavi’s mission to protect the world against infectious diseases.  Since 2006, IFFIm has contributed approximately US$ 5.2 billion to Gavi. IFFIm support has meant Gavi has been able to provide more life-saving vaccines, faster.

In the last two years, IFFIm has proven its mettle in new ways, stepping up to finance the fight against a dangerous, fast-moving pandemic. “IFFIm upped its engagement during the pandemic. It’s been fascinating to see how IFFIm’s business model adapted to the current environment,” said Ken Lay, Chair of IFFIm’s Board of Directors.

Indeed, IFFIm has proven its versatility and value in ways its creators could not have foreseen in 2006. Yet, bringing the public and private sectors together to bring large amounts of funding for global health is what IFFIm was designed to do.

Recent years have been “defining” for IFFIm, said Gavi in its Annual Progress Report 2021, as IFFIm “played a more significant role supporting both Gavi’s core immunisation programmes and COVAX.”

Here are a few ways IFFIm has adapted to the pandemic and accelerated its impact since 2020.

• Major disbursements for routine immunisation and COVID-19 vaccines. Since 2021, IFFIm has provided US$ 1.8 billion to Gavi including the largest ever single-year transfer of US$ 1.2 billion in 2021.
• Donors pledged nearly US$ 3 billion from 2020 to 2022. Recognising IFFIm’s value in bringing pledged money forward in time, donors stepped up to support Gavi 5.0 (approximately US$ 1.63 billion total from Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the UK and Spain); CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (US$ 272 million total from Norway and Italy); and the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment, or AMC (US$ 1.1 billion from Australia, Norway, Sweden and the UK). ¹
• New mandate to help CEPI develop new vaccines. In 2019 and 2020, the Kingdom of Norway made two pledges to IFFIm, joined by Italy in 2020, to provide financial support (as a Gavi programme) to CEPI, which develops new vaccines for dangerous infectious diseases. This transaction was prescient as COVID-19 emerged as a worldwide crisis 2020. IFFIm successfully frontloaded these pledges by issuing Norwegian Krone bonds in the capital markets.
• Support for COVAX AMC. In 2021 IFFIm answered a second new mandate to provide financing for the Gavi COVAX AMC fund to develop and procure COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income countries. IFFIm has played an essential role in accelerating funding for COVAX by frontloading close to US$ 1 billion for COVAX AMC economies since 2020. COVAX had delivered 1.84 billion vaccines as of November 2022.
• IFFIm bonds attracted new and returning investors despite challenging market conditions.  Since 2021, IFFIm has issued more than US$ 1.8 billion in bonds on the capital markets including a US$ 1 billion in 2021 which was its largest bond issue since its inaugural transaction in 2006. Despite turbulent financial markets, in 2022, IFFIm issued two bonds which provided additional funding for Gavi core programmes, returning to the UK market to raise £250 million in July and US$ 500 million in October.
• IFFIm added new tools to its kit. In 2022 IFFIm and Gavi announced a guarantee facility, a revolving mechanism able to accommodate multiple procurement contracts at the same time, backing future payments as vaccines are procured and then releasing the guarantees as Gavi fulfils its payment obligations. This system is expected to improve Gavi’s financial efficiency and strengthen its position in the markets, which will enable Gavi to purchase more vaccines and immunise more children.

What’s next for IFFIm?

IFFIm is an ideal vehicle to support future pandemic preparedness financing. Gavi and IFFIm have been working to design an approach to leverage the IFFIm structure for a contingent financing mechanism that would enable donors to expedite funding to Gavi in response to a future emerging health threat.

“IFFIm has remained an efficient, effective financing mechanism in terms of its overall operational and financing costs through the years while achieving all the original and new mandates and introducing new tools or adapting its tool kit to meet changing needs and emergencies,” said IFFIm board member Doris Herrera-Pol.