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Civil society organisation support

CSOs play a crucial part in immunisation and health care and so GAVI provides funding to help them in their work.

In many countries CSOs deliver 10-60% of immunisation services. GAVI's new funding aims to strengthen CSOs and to encourage the public sector and civil society to work together to plan and deliver sustainable health care.

The GAVI Alliance will invest US$30 million in two types of support between 2007 and 2009.

  • Strengthening the coordination and representation of CSOs at country and regional levels. This is CSO type A support available to all GAVI countres;
  • Funding for CSOs in 10 pilot countries to help implement health system strengthening (HSS) plans or the comprehensive multi-year plan for immunisation (cMYP). This is CSO type B support.

    See application forms

CSOs have access to people who, for geographical, socioeconomic or cultural reasons, are the hardest to reach, often because they are beyond the reach of direct government services. For example, in Cambodia, 30-40% of routine immunisation is delivered by CSOs, 8-12% in Bangladesh and up to 40% in Ghana.

CSOs also mobilise populations to create demand for immunisation and other child health services, and provide technical assistance to national immunisation and child health programmes. They advocate to influence decision-makers, donors and the media. Within the framework of the Millennium Development Goals, Global Health Partnership engagement with CSOs is cited as a best practice in pursuit of national and community ownership and sustainability.

How the GAVI Alliance supports civil society organisations





All GAVI-eligible countries can apply for lump sum funding of between
US$ 10,000 and US$100,000 for use before October 2009 for

  • The mapping of CSOs involved in immunisation, child health and health system strengthening;
  • Facilitating CSO representation in country coordination mechanisms (ICC, HSCC) and in regional forums;
  • Stimulating cooperation between CSOs and the public sector.
GAVI support to the 10 pilot countries is additional to existing funding streams to help these countries deliver their comprehensive multi-year plan for immunisation and implement health system strengthening proposals. This means it is integrated into the existing GAVI window for health system strengthening to allow a more harmonised, country-driven approach and avoids fragmenting support through multiple programme windows. Examples of potential activities are

  • Provision of immunisation-related health services for hard-to-reach populations;
  • Provision of services that strengthen the health system particularly at district or sub-district level;
  • Technical assistance;
  • Social mobilisation;
  • Monitoring and evaluation;
  • Operational research.

    The 10 pilot countries are: Afghanistan, Burundi, Bolivia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Mozambique, Pakistan.