National Governments

GAVI’s Board includes representatives of several governments; development agencies from donor countries and health ministries from developing countries. Currently, the governments of Bhutan and Mali contribute the developing countries’ perspectives, and the governments of Canada, the Netherlands and Norway contribute the donor countries’ perspectives on the Board. The GAVI Working Group includes representation from the United States.

The roles of national governments in GAVI

Low-income countries:

The primary responsibility is to ascertain that the health and financial sectors develop effective measures to provide services to those in greatest need. In addition, participating governments will:

• Assure that health in general, and immunization in particular, receive a justified and identifiable proportion of the government budget;
• Coordinate external assistance for immunization;
• Develop, monitor and evaluate multi-year immunization plans;
• Collaborate with communities and private-sector health service providers.

High-income countries:

The primary responsibility is to ensure that health receives an adequate proportion of external aid, and that this is channelled through the sector coordination mechanisms. In addition, participating governments will:

• Ensure that their international policies relevant to health, and especially immunization, emphasize the needs of the world’s poorest people;
• Ensure that health is given adequate priority, not only as an international public good, but in the context of poverty-reduction policies;
• Ensure that global health challenges, including the need for wider access to immunization, receive priority in their national health research institutions;
• Facilitate the participation of those national institutions in international efforts;
• Support the strengthening of immunization services through broad sectoral approaches