Proof of Concept

Support from 17 governments, the EU, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has enabled our alliance to achieve "proof of concept." This aid is indispensable… but by itself it’s not enough to fund current initiatives, much less the scaling up envisioned between now and 2015.

Something altogether new was needed to tap the power of the private sector and frontload funds for childhood immunization.

Launched in 2006, it’s called the International Finance Facility for Immunization - IFFIm.

Alan Gillespie, chairman of IFFIm as well as the Ulster Bank Group, describes the critical role private investment plays.

The sovereign donors’ payment obligations allow IFFIm to borrow in the international capital markets and issue IFFIm bonds. There have been two such bond issues.

The first, sold to institutional investors in November 2006 and supported by heads of state and business and religious leaders, raised $1 billion. Already, $900 million has been disbursed to GAVI programs. Goldman Sachs acted as the financial advisor to IFFIm and together with Deutsche Bank served as the joint-lead manager on this successful inaugural issue.

The second bond issue, in cooperation with Daiwa Bank, raised $223 million from retail investors in Japan. An anticipated IFFIm investment totaling nearly $4 billion is expected to protect more than 500 million children through immunization campaigns against measles, tetanus, and yellow fever.

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2.5 million children will die this year from vaccine preventable diseases. That’s greater than the entire population of Paris.