GAVI approves $20m for strengthening of cold chain system

Islamabad: The Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) has approved a grant of US $20 million to enable Pakistan to strengthen the cold chain system for vaccines under the Expanded Programme on Immunization.

The GAVI Board, which met in Geneva to review immunisation progress, featured a presentation where Pakistan presented a case study on how a turnaround was affected in ensuring financial sustainability and systems strengthening to upscale immunization services in the country.

Director General Health Dr. Assad Hafeez, who represented Pakistan at the GAVI Board meeting, made a detailed presentation before the global forum. The board decided to document the case study of the turnaround achieved by Pakistan and to share the same with developing nations eligible for GAVI support so they can improve their respective vaccination programmes.

Dr. Assad shared the country’s implementation of the National Immunisation Support Programme through the Multi-donor Trust Fund managed by the World Bank. The country achieved uninterrupted supply of vaccines and saved substantial costs through pool procurement of vaccines agreed among the federal government and all provinces. A complete overhaul of the vaccine supply and management was done in record time.

“For financial sustainability of the programme, we are moving from project mode to recurrent budget so that allocations for immunisation programme are reflected in regular annual budgets,” he told the meeting.