Following Gavi’s replenishment, MSF calls for vaccine access for children in humanitarian settings

Background:

Following Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance’s replenishment pledging summit yesterday, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) urged Gavi, its board members, and donors to now focus their efforts to reach children in humanitarian settings with lifesaving vaccination.

Gavi – which was set up 25 years ago to increase access to vaccines for children living in the world's poorest countries – did not reach its funding target of US$11.9 billion and faces a shortfall. With a few donors yet to pledge, there are still opportunities to address this.

With over 50 years of experience vaccinating children who live in some of the world’s hardest-to-reach and most neglected settings, MSF is keenly aware of the barriers and challenges that make access to and the delivery of vaccines in humanitarian settings particularly complex and expensive.

Dr Daniela Garone, International Medical Coordinator, MSF: ​

“We are encouraged to see global solidarity in support of Gavi’s next five years of work, but it comes with a funding shortfall, and this should not deter Gavi and donors from stepping up and ensuring stronger efforts to reach children in humanitarian settings with immunisation.

“We see first-hand the devastating impact of low immunisation coverage on communities and health systems, with many of the places in which we work having faced outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases – like measles in Darfur, Sudan and diphtheria in Kano, Nigeria – due, in part, to limited vaccine access.

“With more than half of unvaccinated children living in humanitarian settings around the world, including war zones, refugee camps, and remote areas cut off from healthcare, it should be clear that now is the time to bolster access to vaccines.

“Ensuring that children actually get vaccinated needs sufficient funding, political will, and commitment from donors and governments. That’s why we again call on Gavi, its board members and donors to improve access to vaccines for children living in humanitarian settings, including by ensuring that all children until at least age five have sustainable access to vaccines.”

The UK announced yesterday a pledge of £1.25 billion to the Gavi replenishment over the next five years. This is a reduction to their previous pledge during the last Gavi replenishment round in 2020 where the UK pledged £1.65 billion over five years.

Matthew Coldiron, Medical and Research Director, MSF UK, said:

“The UK’s reduced pledge to Gavi is disappointing. It comes against a backdrop of wider cuts to the UK’s aid budget and a retreat from the UK’s leadership in global health. The bottom line is fewer children will be vaccinated, and more lives will be lost from preventable diseases.

With most unvaccinated children living in humanitarian crises, the UK should double down on its commitments to prioritise humanitarian settings in its aid budget allocations, and ensure access to lifesaving vaccines for children already living in crisis and at high risk of outbreaks and preventable diseases.”

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MSF does not accept Gavi funding. However, MSF often works in close collaboration with countries’ Ministries of Health, with more than half of the vaccines MSF uses in its projects coming from Ministries of Health and procured through Gavi.