GAVI said it launched a public consultation on its Country by Country Approach. The consultation will be open until Monday 30 July 2012. At its November 2011, the GAVI Alliance Board requested the Secretariat “to develop a policy that clearly defines the GAVI Alliance’s approach to fragile and under-performing countries”. The main objectives of this work are to:

– Recognise current limitations faced by a subset of countries in their ability to access and leverage GAVI support.

– Ensure that country-specific challenges to accessing immunisation support are identified.

– Propose flexibilities in current GAVI policies and how they could be applied equitably on a country by country basis.

Based on preliminary analysis from the work, GAVI’s Programme and Policy Committee (PPC) on 23-24 April 2012 “agreed that a country by country approach would be a more useful option than developing a policy centred on a specific fragile states definition. At the PPC, it was further agreed that links with fragility would, if possible, include immunisation coverage and government structure. The policy should stay simple and indicate clearly what the approaches are and who is eligible, and the final framework should be transparent to avoid an unfair application of the policy between countries.” The Country by Country policy process has consisted of country and expert consultations with various groups of stakeholders.

The consolidated comments and feedback received during this consultation process as well as a revised draft version of the Country by Country Approach and framework will be presented to the PPC in October before it is taken to the Board for endorsement in December 2012.

More information is available on the GAVI Alliance website http://www.gavialliance.org/about/gavis-business-model/country-by-country-approach/