29 August 2024

Credit: Gavi/2023/Benedikt V. Loebell

A child in need of a life-saving vaccine cannot afford to wait. IFFIm employs a frontloading model that enables Gavi to protect people, communities and the world faster by bringing future aid forward to have an immediate impact.

IFFlm has catalysed Gavi's life-saving impact by enabling the immunisation of more children, faster. Since 2006, IFFlm has contributed US$ 5.8 billion to bolster Gavi's vaccination programs, representing 17% of Gavi's overall funding. IFFlm has played a transformative role in global health, facilitating Gavi's routine immunisation of over 233 million additional children, contributing to the total 1.1 billion immunised by Gavi. Notably, over 13% of these children - 142 million - were immunised because of IFFlm's ability to frontload donor pledges due years later.

Here are some significant ways IFFIm has made an impact on global health:

1. Scaling up human papillomavirus (HPV) coverage to save girls and women from cervical cancer

IFFIm has been crucial in protecting millions of girls by supporting Gavi’s efforts to eliminate cervical cancer, one of the world’s deadliest diseases. IFFIm provided US$ 130 million to Gavi for HPV programmes, improving the health outlook for millions of mothers, daughters, partners, and sisters. By the end of 2022, these programmes had reached more than 16.3 million girls, averting more than 387,000 deaths. Over the coming years, IFFIm’s support will help Gavi reach over 120 million adolescent girls, with a goal of preventing 1.5 million deaths. These contributions will reduce gender barriers to immunisation and ensure girls grow into strong, healthy women supporting their families and communities.

2. Frontloading pentavalent and cutting vaccine costs 

IFFIm was instrumental in reducing the cost of the pentavalent vaccine. In 2007, IFFIm enabled Gavi to make an initial upfront payment of US$ 191 million to vaccine suppliers, encouraging them to increase production and lower prices. An independent evaluation in 2011 found that IFFIm’s funding led to greater competition and reduced prices for pentavalent vaccines. Total IFFIm support for pentavalent vaccines now exceeds US$ 1.5 billion, with the average cost of fully immunising a child with pentavalent dropping from US$ 8.95 in 2010 to US$ 2.81 in 2023. By the end of 2022, over 705 million children in 73 countries had been immunised with a pentavalent vaccine with Gavi support. These children can now look forward to a healthy future.

3. Enabling Gavi’s Ebola response 

IFFIm significantly boosted Gavi’s ability to respond swiftly to emergencies, notably during the 2014 Ebola crisis. IFFIm’s flexibility to provide funding at scale allowed Gavi to commit US$ 300 million to a comprehensive Ebola response, including the procurement of hundreds of millions of vaccine doses. This proactive approach spurred vaccine development, advanced trials, and the creation of a stockpile of 300,000 investigational doses for combating Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during 2018 and 2019. By protecting more than 206,000 people from Ebola, IFFIm helped halt the spread of this highly contagious and fatal disease, saving countless lives

4. Strengthening country health systems

Strong health systems are crucial not only for delivering life-saving vaccines but also for preventing disease outbreaks. IFFIm kickstarted Gavi’s health system strengthening investments (HSS) in 40 countries, accounting for nearly 84% of Gavi’s initial funding during the first two years. Vaccinating a child connects families with healthcare systems, especially in hard-to-reach places. IFFIm’s flexible funding has consistently enabled lower income countries to enhance and maintain the essential health systems that communities rely upon. By December 2022, IFFIm had provided nearly 10% of its funding to Gavi for HSS, totalling close to US$ 500 million.

5. Extending IFFIm’s invaluable frontloading capabilities as a critical pandemic response tool

IFFIm emerged as one of the earliest funding sources to support Gavi’s global pandemic response, frontloading over 90%, or US$ 975 million, of donor pledges for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (COVAX AMC) alongside an additional US$ 206 million for CEPI’s C19 vaccine research and development. This feat was only possible because IFFIm had available funding capacity supported by other IFFIm grants. IFFIm was able to frontload grants notionally allocated for the COVAX AMC providing US$ 400 million in January 2021, within a month of the grant signature.