Ghana, 13 other countries to win GAVI awards

Ghana and thirteen other developing countries in the world are to receive GAVI awards for their outstanding commitment to co-financing life-saving vaccines to help immunize citizens in the world's poorest countries.

Among the thirteen other developing countries are; Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Madagascar, Liberia and Malawi. The rest are Rwanda, Tanzania, Solomon Islands, Yemen and Bolivia.

The special award ceremony that seeks to recognize these thirteen developing countries will take place at this week's World Health Assembly in Geneva. This was contained in a statement released in Accra and signed by Kestin Reisdorf, Communication Specialist/Media and Information of the GAVI Alliance.

“We are pleased and proud to recognize these countries for their extraordinary commitment to immunization”, said Dr. Julian Lob-Levyt, GAVI Alliance Chief Executive Officer. “They have demonstrated an impressive level of ownership which shows that GAVI's unique co-financing scheme is providing to be a successful model for development aid. Already a third of all GAVI's recipient countries co-finance now and we expect this number to continue to increase”, he added.

Zambia, which received a similar award in 2007 is expected to be recognized again this year for its immense contribution towards immunization. “Our government is very committed to child survival and particularly wants to ensure that the immunization programme is properly funded, maintained and sustained,” noted Dr. Victor Mukonka, Director of Public Health and Research at the Ministry of Health in Lusaka.

“These days we can pay for over 25 percent of the costs of the vaccines we receive. We are hoping to eventually fully fund the immunization of our children. We have worked extremely hard to convince the cabinet to invest in children and to prevent diseases rather than wait until the children are sick. In Zambia, everybody values vaccination as a cost-effective intervention”, he explained.

So far, twenty-seven countries have helped finance the purchase of vaccines against common but life-threatening diseases such as rotavirus, Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b, tetanus and pertusis –four times as many countries than in 2007.

In total, these co-payments amounted to more than US$17million in 2008, representing a 50% cost to GAVI. Through its unique co-financing policy, GAVI encourages recipient governments to contribute between 10 and 30 cents US Cents per dose, depending on their ability to pay.

GAVI's co-financing policy aims to strengthen country ownership and to help countries work towards financial sustainability for their immunization programmes. Eventually, all countries will be required to co-finance GAVI-supported vaccines according to their ability to pay and the number of different vaccines deployed.

The GAVI Alliance is a Geneva-based public-private partnership aimed at improving health in the world's poorest countries. The Alliance brings together developing countries and donor governments, the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations International Children Education's Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank, the vaccine industry in both industrialized and developing countries, research and technical agencies, Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO's) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private philanthropists.

GAVI support consists of providing life-saving vaccines and strengthening health systems. Since 2000, over 200 million children have been vaccinated and 3.4 million premature deaths averted through GAVI funded programmes.