Sabin Vaccine Institute convened the Global Colloquium on Sustainable Immunization Financing, held 28-29 March 2011, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sabin said that this first-ever high-level meeting, focused on sustainable immunization financing, brought together over 75 delegates representing ministries of health and finance and parliaments in 18 African, Asian and Latin American countries. Dr. Ciro de Quadros, Sabin Executive Vice President, commented, “We know that effective vaccination programs contribute to healthier, more productive societies. Immunization is one of the best investments a country can make. Our goal for each country we work with is to identify long-term sources of financing and assure a fiscally sustainable national immunization program.” Sabin noted that as national immunization programs expand and new vaccines become available, increasing costs place strains on low-income countries, and that possible sustainable funding mechanisms include increased funding from current government revenues, development of decentralized immunization budgets and the creation of national immunization trust funds. To date, six of the countries attending the colloquium – Sierra Leone, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Cambodia and Nepal – have achieved government budgetary increases for routine immunizations following targeted SIF advocacy efforts and nine countries are preparing new immunization legislation that will safeguard immunization funding, Sabin said.
The 18 countries participating in the colloquium include SIF’s 15 pilot countries-Cambodia, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Uganda-as well as Bolivia, Colombia and El Salvador. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Sustainable Immunization Financing Program “has been working since 2007 to ensure accessibility and affordability of immunizations, an essential public health good, in each of its 15 pilot countries.”
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