Finding the Funding for GAVI: Amanda Glassman

My guest on this show is Amanda Glassman, research fellow and director of CGD’s Global Health Program. I recorded this Wonkcast with her last week, just ahead of the first pledging session for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI).GAVI is a coalition of private foundations and donor country governments who work to increase the availability of vaccines, a highly cost-effective health intervention that is chronically under provided. Among other mechanisms, GAVI buys the vaccines at discount by purchasing in bulk, then passes the savings onto poor countries to expand coverage. Over the past 10 years, GAVI estimates it has saved 5 million children from vaccine vaccine-preventable diseases, an accomplishment which Amanda considers to be remarkable.The first half of the show focuses on expectations for U.S. contributions at the pledging session; see Will Obama Follow UK Meeting with Adequate Money for Vaccines? for more on this issue, including an update from Amanda with the answer to this question (hint: it’s good news).In the second half of the show, Amanda walks me through some recommendations from her new report on the future direction of GAVI. She details some practical improvements that would enable GAVI to become even more effective in saving children’s lives, partly by increasing incentives for beneficiary countries to do their part.   If you have iTunes, you can subscribe to get new episodes delivered straight to your computer every week. My thanks to Will McKitterick for his production assistance on the Wonkcast recording and for assistance in drafting this blog post.