The breadth of vaccine protection in Gavi-supported countries, many of which are in Africa, has surpassed global averages, achieving 56 percent coverage compared to the worldwide average of 53 percent, says a recent report by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

In a remarkable milestone for global health, at least 54 vaccine programmes originally introduced with Gavi funding are now self-financed by countries as of 2022, up from 40 in 2018.

Countries contributed a record $162 million towards the co-financing of Gavi-supported vaccines in 2022, demonstrating strong ownership and financial sustainability.

Despite facing fiscal challenges, climate change, conflict and instability, Gavi-supported countries maintained or increased domestic resources for vaccine co-financing in 2022.

This commitment brought their total contribution to $1.5 billion since the introduction of the co-financing policy in 2008. Notably, 2.6 million more children received basic routine immunisations in 2022 compared to 2021.

The Vaccine Alliance has successfully vaccinated over 1 billion children through routine immunisation programmes from 2000 to 2022.

In 2022, Gavi supported 40 vaccine introductions and preventive campaigns, in addition to 40 outbreak response vaccination campaigns.

This achievement highlights the substantial impact of efforts in combating some of the world’s deadliest diseases. In 2022 alone, more than 68 million children were vaccinated.

Gavi plays a crucial role in immunising more than half of the world’s children.

From 2000 to 2022, the Alliance facilitated over 1.8 billion vaccinations through preventive campaigns and averted more than 17.3 million future deaths.

The Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) initiative further prevented over 2.7 million deaths across participating low- and middle-income countries.