GAVI Alliance Board

List of all 2009 Board meetings with links to full minutes and downloads of 'Final Minutes' documents:

CEO report to the board as GAVI approaches its tenth anniversary.

Potential joint GAVI, GFATM and World Bank health systems strengthening programming and funding platform.

Vaccine donation in 2000 from Merck (5 million doses of hepatitis B monovalent vaccine (6-dose vials)) to GAV and in 2008 from Wyeth (3.1 million doses of 7-valent pneumococcal vaccine (PrevenarTM)). The Executive Committee accepted these donation, but requested that GAVI’s existing vaccine donation policy – adopted in 2000 – should be reviewed and revised if necessary. This work was undertaken by the Secretariat, under the guidance of the Policy & Programme Committee (PPC) during 2009.

Thanks to steady support from donors, the GAVI Alliance has achieved significant results. To respond to demand, GAVI needs to plan for the possibility that additional core funding is not received. The Board is requested to take decisions on a cash and investment reserve, a cap on 2010 expenditures, new IRC recommendations, and meeting the funding challenge.

At the Investment Committee meeting on 17 September 2009, the Secretariat proposed several modest changes to the investment policy.

CEO report to the Board.

The 2010 Administrative budget is presented for Committee review. The 2009-2010 work plan budget was approved in October 2008; the Secretariat is providing an update to the Audit and Finance Committee which shows decreased spending in 2009 and a decreased budget for 2010.

The GAVI Board requested that the eligibility policy be reviewed and revised in 2009 and the Programme and Policy Committee (PPC) took responsibility for developing this policy for Board review. The PPC appointed a time-limited task team to guide the analytical work, which was carried out by the Secretariat.

The processes and procedures described in the main programme funding plan submitted to the Audit and Finance Committee were used to make the recommendations made in this paper except that US citizens and residents of the IRC and Secretariat refrained from participating. United States regulations currently restrict disbursement of US funds to the Governments of Cuba, Myanmar, and North Sudan.

Governance Committee update June - November 2009.

Since 2000, the GAVI Alliance has identified ten priority vaccines (the “current portfolio”). In order to achieve its ambitions, GAVI’s resource mobilisation efforts will need to generate significant additional and predictable funds and should consider now how to prioritise its allocation decisions while considering how best to shape markets to make vaccines and related technologies more affordable in the longer term. The Board was requested to take decisions on funding existing commitments and the focus of prioritisation.

Programme and Policy Committee update, June-November 2009.

Since GAVI‘s inception, a simple metric and threshold have been used to define country eligibility: GNI per capita ≤ $1,000. However, there are no formal or explicit procedures to guide countries as changes in their income causes them to transition from eligible to ineligible; i.e. no procedures for "graduation". This has created uncertainty for, and potentially inhibited decision-making by GAVI-eligible countries.

The Audit and Finance Committee advises the Board in respect to the accounting, financing, budgeting, and financial practices of the GAVI Alliance. The Committee is chaired by Wayne Berson and has met twice since the June Board meeting. This document serves to update the Board on its discussions and recommendations.

Experience over the lifetime of GAVI’s current strategy has lead to evolution and change to some aspects of GAVI’s operational model as well as the development and revision of several fundamental polices (co-financing, eligibility, the Vaccine Investment Strategy (VIS)), and the design and set-up of platforms for Accelerated Vaccine Introduction (AVI) and health system strengthening (HSS). GAVI is now in the position to develop a single and integrated strategy and budget, which includes projections for vaccines and country programme costs.The Board was requested to determine the process for strategy development.

GAVI Alliance Board Meeting, 02 June 2009, Final Minutes.

The Statutes state the Board has the responsibility to approve the annual accounts. For the 2008 year, the scope of this responsibility applies only to the Swiss entity. In the future, the GAVI Alliance financials will consolidate affiliated entities such as IFFIm. On 28 May 2009, the Audit and Finance Committee will meet with GAVI’s outside auditor and review these financial statements.

The United States has a particular funding restriction that implicates individual Board members (and staff): US citizens and permanent residents (and organisations) are barred from any involvement in decisions that result in funding to so-called ‘Restricted Countries’ (currently includes the governments of Myanmar, North Sudan and Cuba). The Board is requested to acknowledge that Board members who are US citizens or permanent residents will need to recuse themselves from any decisions that lead to funding for Restricted Countries.

The Governance Committee recommended to the Board that it charter a small committee comprising a majority of independent evaluation experts and a minority of board members to oversee organisation and programme evaluation. The Secretariat drafted the charter based on the Governance Committee’s guidance.

The GAVI Alliance has relied on a range of advisory groups and task teams to provide independent, expert advice; to facilitate the work of multiple partners on important initiatives and projects; and, to provide technical support to the policy design and implementation process. The Governance Transition Committee (Dec 2007- Jun 2008) recommended that the new governance structure gives GAVI an opportunity to ensure that GAVI’s task teams and groups continue to work effectively.

CEO Report to the Board.

The investment policy and cash investment policy together provide the framework on which the Investment Committee and Secretariat perform these functions. They describe roles and responsibilities, risk management priorities, the frequency for review of GAVI cash and investment allocations, and provide transparent criteria for key decisions.

At its 1 June meeting, the Governance Committee will discuss its plan for recruitment of new board members to fill seats being vacated at the end of 2009. It will update the Board on its deliberation at the Board meeting.

The Governance Committee recommended to the Board that it approve the following policies: Whistleblower policy, Document retention policy, Delegation of authority policy and Conflict of interest policy.