For Marie-Ange, then already years into championing IFFIm, the moment captured everything the instrument demands, and everything it makes possible. “We had the pledges. But the children couldn’t wait 10 years,” she said. 

That tension – one between budget restraints and human urgency – has defined IFFIm’s story since its creation in 2006. And as IFFIm marks its 20th anniversary in 2026, it is also a story of how leadership helped turn a highly technical idea into one of the most influential tools in global health finance

A leap of faith

IFFIm was launched to answer a deceptively simple question: how do you move faster when lives are at stake? By issuing bonds backed by long-term sovereign pledges, IFFIm enabled Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to access funds upfront, years before traditional aid would arrive.

In its early years, before Gavi had a formal replenishment cycle, IFFIm gave a massive boost to global immunisation efforts and demonstrated that innovative finance could deliver realworld impact. But it was also complex. To many policymakers, it sounded abstract, full of legal frameworks, balance sheets, and bond terminology.

“In the beginning, we made IFFIm sound much more complicated than it needed to be,” said Saraka-Yao. “But this was never about basis points. It was about speed, certainty, and saving lives.”

From the start, political leadership mattered. IFFIm was born during the UK’s G7 presidency, backed by leaders willing to take a leap of faith. That same willingness would later prove essential as the instrument sought to grow beyond its founding donors.

Making IFFIm work in the real world

When Marie-Ange joined Gavi in 2011, now serving as Chief Resource Mobilisation & Growth Officer, IFFIm was at another inflection point. Gavi had introduced a structured five-year replenishment cycle, and the role of IFFIm needed to evolve.

A senior executive with a 20-year track record in strategic leadership, policy development, innovative finance and resource mobilisation, Marie-Ange brought both technical expertise and political fluency. Her leadership has been instrumental in helping Gavi raise nearly US$ 45 billion in pledges by 2025. As Gavi’s lead negotiator with G7 and G20 leaders, corporations, and high-net-worth individuals, she helped expand and diversify Gavi’s investor base using instruments like IFFIm, the Advanced Market Commitment, and the Gavi Matching Fund in complementary ways.

“Donors would ask me: ‘You want us to commit now for something that may happen years from today?’ And I would tell them – yes, because that’s exactly how we prevent the next crisis,” she said.

Under Marie-Ange’s leadership, IFFIm shifted from being seen primarily as a front-loading mechanism to becoming a source of strategic flexibility, supporting long-term vaccine procurement, market shaping, and rapid response when the unexpected hit.

That flexibility proved decisive. IFFIm financing helped accelerate Ebola vaccine development in 2015. It provided surge capacity during COVID-19. It supported the early stability of Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) when the organisation was still finding its footing.

Nowhere was Marie-Ange’s persistence more evident than in Brazil. Although Brazil made an initial political commitment to IFFIm in 2006, it took several years of engagement – across legal, parliamentary, and budgetary systems – before the pledge became operational in 2018. “New donors don’t just sign on,” she said. “You have to help them make it work within their own system – and stay with them until it does.”

From the IFFIm Board’s perspective, that ability to translate complexity into conviction has been central to the instrument’s success.

“Marie-Ange has an exceptional ability to explain IFFIm’s advantages to donors – clearly, credibly, and in a way that connects finance to real-world impact. She helped position IFFIm as a smart, strategic choice, not just a generous one,” said Ken Lay, former Chair of the IFFIm Board of Directors.

The future: stronger, broader and more human

Today, donors still engage with IFFIm for the economic benefits to their budgets but also for different reasons. Some value its role in shaping markets and reducing vaccine prices, including for pentavalent and HPV vaccines. Others rely on its surge capacity – the reassurance that financing can move at the speed of a health emergency.

Increasingly, IFFIm is also seen as a platform for the future, with potential roles in supporting new vaccines and addressing diseases like malaria and tuberculosis that require large upfront investment.

As IFFIm enters its third decade, it does so with momentum, including an ongoing strategic review to ensure IFFIm continues to be attractive to donors and responsive to Gavi’s needs. Far from being a legacy instrument, it is poised to become even stronger and more relevant, helping Gavi and its partners meet the challenges of the next 20 years and beyond.

For Marie-Ange, that future is also personal. Just weeks ago, she was back in Brazil – one of her final donor missions – reflecting on a relationship that took years to realise and now stands as a testament to what persistence and leadership can achieve.

“If there’s one thing I hope people remember, it’s that finance should never be the reason we fail to save lives,” she said. “IFFIm showed what’s possible when we’re willing to think differently, and act boldly.”