GENEVA - The Minister of Health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, is in Geneva, Switzerland to attend a three-day board meeting of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), that runs from July 6 to 8.

Rwanda represents 16 eligible Anglophone  countries in Africa on the GAVI Board,

Rwanda is also a seating member of the Governance and Evaluation Committees of the GAVI Board. Dr. Binagwaho sits on this board in her capacity as Rwanda’s Health Minister.

"This meeting will cover an important range of policy and programmatic issues, including funding and use and uptake of new vaccines, eligibility of countries, health system strengthening and sustainable co-financing by countries,” Dr Binagwaho said.

"Rwanda is a very close partner of the GAVI Alliance-we have been benefiting from several immunisation packages from the alliance and we look forward to strengthening our partnership, not only for Rwanda but also Africa as a whole.”

As board member, Rwanda has the responsibility to attend all meetings and contribute to the smooth functioning of the GAVI Alliance and to advocate for better access to immunisation among all sister countries. 

The current board has a mandate that runs till December this year.

The GAVI board meeting is also expected to review and make decisions on fund predictability, follow up on pledges and update financial forecasts.

They will also discuss on strategies of strengthening capacity of integrated health systems to deliver immunisation programs.

The developing countries constituency will also hold a pre-board meeting to examine cash based programs, in which Rwanda will feature.

In December 2010, the GAVI Alliance board met in Kigali and approved a five-year business plan from 2011-2015 setting ambitious but achievable targets expected to cost US$6.8 billion.

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