The GAVI Alliance used the 62nd World Health Assembly in Geneva to highlight the commitments to immunisation, despite the financial crisis, by “more and more of the world’s poorest countries” through their contributions “towards the cost of life-saving vaccines…” GAVI CEO Julian Lob-Levyt presented awards to a number of countries (listed below) and noted that twenty seven developing countries now contribute to vaccine costs through the GAVI Alliance, up from just six in 2007. In total, these co-payments amounted to more than US$ 17 million in 2008, or 15% of the respective cost to GAVI.

Countries receiving awards included: Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Tanzania, Yemen and Zambia. GAVI said that “through its unique co-financing policy, (it) encourages recipient governments to contribute between 10 and 30 US cents per dose, depending on their ability to pay. http://www.gavialliance.org/media_centre/press_releases/2009_05_19_WHA_cofinancing.php