Return on investment stories

Just one and half years after Bolivia became the first GAVI-eligible country to introduce the rotavirus vaccine, a disease responsible for almost half of all hospitalisations for diarrhoea from 2006-2008, is on the retreat.

From 2002-2010, GAVI co-funded immunisation against hepatitis B in the west and central provinces of China. Today, less than 1% of children under 5 are chronic carriers of hepB.

The steady rise in the number of vaccine manufacturers based in emerging economies since 2001 represents a tell-tale sign of GAVI's true impact on the vaccine market.

While GAVI was set up first and foremost to help countries introduce new and under-used vaccines, its programme support has also increased global access to the long-existing vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP).

GAVI support for strengthening the Vietnamese health service brings training and resources to even the remotest areas.

GAVI and other leading donors to Nepal channel their financial support through a single system to streamline assistance for the national health programme.

In the first five years of the millennium, Cambodia achieved an almost 30% drop in infant and child mortality rates, but improvements in women's health failed to keep pace.

Vaccines bring added value to the economies of the world's poorest countries with GAVI's investment in immunisation set to yield an 18% rate of return by 2020, according to a Harvard School of Public Health study.

It has been a little over a year since Rwanda introduced a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine known as PCV7. The vaccine protects children against one of the most common causes of pneumonia – with encouraging results.

GAVI ranks fifth out of 38 bilateral and multilateral donors in a study measuring donors' performance against best practices established at the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

For the pharmaceutical industry to offer fixed lower prices for developing countries, manufacturers need to see a vaccine market with sufficient size and income to cover their costs.

Despite the backdrop of a global financial crisis, GAVI received a record number of applications for funding from low-income countries in 2009, according to the latest edition of the Alliance's annual Progress Report.

By pooling donor contributions to make long-term vaccine orders and grouping developing countries into a single large-scale buyer, GAVI is helping make life-saving new vaccines more affordable for the world's poorest.

The GAVI-funded Hib Initiative paved the way for low-income countries to introduce vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type b infection