Between 2023 and August 2026, ten countries supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance paid more than US$440 million in co-financing for their children’s vaccines. In this episode of One Shot, Long Life!, the immunization financing podcast of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), host Abel Akara Ticha looks back on three years of GHAI’s work with Gavi, governments and civil society partners as Gavi 5.0 ends and Gavi 6.0 begins.

GHAI in-country coordinators share what changed: Dr. Wesley Mwambazi (Zambia), Emmanuel Tieh Delamy (Liberia), Dr. Christine Harmelle Ename-Ekoman (Cameroon), Prof. Emmanuel Alhassan (Nigeria), Eli Ramamonjisoa (Madagascar), Dr. Abdul Jibril Njai (Sierra Leone), Risper Chebet (Kenya), Stephen A. Atasige (Ghana) and Dr. Phonethipsavanh Nouanthong (Lao PDR). Vandana Shah, GHAI Vice President for Health Systems Strengthening, brings the lessons together.

Q: What role did parliaments play in immunization financing?

A: After 21 members of parliament signed the Istanbul Parliamentary Call to Action in April 2025, GHAI and its partners engaged 187 MPs, and nine of the ten countries formed a parliamentary caucus or coalition on immunization financing.

Q: Why does paying co-financing on time matter?

A: “No child is vaccinated by a line item in a budget,” says Prof. Emmanuel Alhassan. Kenya completed its 2025/26 Gavi co-financing earlier than ever recorded, and Ghana cut its payment time from 11 months to six.

Q: What comes next under Gavi 6.0?

A: “A vaccine paid for on time is the one shot that gives a child a long life,” says Vandana Shah.

About "One Shot, Long Life!"

One Shot, Long Life! is a podcast on immunization financing and vaccine advocacy in Africa and Asia. Host Abel Akara Ticha talks with parliamentarians, civil society leaders and health experts about how countries fund vaccines and keep children protected from preventable disease.

What is a zero-dose child? A zero-dose child has never received a single routine vaccine. Reaching these children is the front line of global immunization.

Why does domestic vaccine financing matter? As donor support tapers, national budgets cover a growing share of vaccine costs. Steady domestic funding keeps children protected year after year.

Follow the Global Health Advocacy Incubator on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advocacyincubator/

Podcast home: https://www.advocacyincubator.org/one-shot-long-life

Listen and follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and your favorite podcast app.

Liberia needs about US$7.2 million for immunization next year, but its vaccine budget line has long sat near US$500,000. Under Gavi 6.0, the Government of Liberia now pays 60 percent of the cost of Gavi-supported vaccines.

On One Shot, Long Life!, host Abel Akara Ticha of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) talks with Hon. Julie Fatorma Wiah (chair, Joint Primary Health Care and Immunization Caucus), Emmanuel Tieh Delamy (GHAI country coordinator, Liberia) and Joyce Kilikpo (executive director, Public Health Initiative Liberia, or PHIL).

Quick FAQ

What is vaccine co-financing? Co-financing is the share of each Gavi-supported vaccine that a country buys from its own budget. Under Gavi's co-financing policy, that share rises with national income. Liberia paid its full 2025 share, about US$511,000, plus US$200,000 early toward 2026.

How is Liberia protecting immunization money? An Act of the Legislature created Liberia's immunization caucus. Section 10 of the draft Public Health Law would set up a statutory Immunization Trust Fund. “A law outlives any minister and creates a duty, not just a wish,” says Joyce Kilikpo of PHIL.

Why is spending the money the next test? A PHIL fiscal gap analysis found vaccine budget execution near 42 percent from 2020 to 2024. “Money on paper is not money in the clinic,” says GHAI's Emmanuel Tieh Delamy. Payment sign-offs have since dropped from 18 layers to five.

Also covered: PHIL scorecards that ended hidden vaccine fees in 42 facilities, higher tobacco taxes and County Development Fund support.

About "One Shot, Long Life!"

One Shot, Long Life! is a podcast on immunization financing and vaccine advocacy in Africa and Asia. Host Abel Akara Ticha talks with parliamentarians, civil society leaders and health experts about how countries fund vaccines and keep children protected from preventable disease.

What is a zero-dose child? A zero-dose child has never received a single routine vaccine. Reaching these children is the front line of global immunization.

Why does domestic vaccine financing matter? As donor support tapers, national budgets cover a growing share of vaccine costs. Steady domestic funding keeps children protected year after year.

Follow the Global Health Advocacy Incubator on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advocacyincubator/

Podcast home: https://www.advocacyincubator.org/one-shot-long-life

Listen and follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and your favorite podcast app.

Cameroon faces a staggering 130 billion CFA francs (USD 226 million) immunization financing gap by 2030, leaving 130,000 children starting life with zero vaccine doses. As international Gavi support winds down, domestic funding for the Expanded Programme on Immunization fell rapidly from 34.8% in 2021 to just 14.5% in 2024.

In this episode of "One Shot, Long Life!", host Abel Akara Ticha unpacks these challenges with leading vaccine advocacy champions: Hon. Lawson Tabot (Parliamentary Immunization Financing Caucus), Ms. Harmelle Ename-Ekoman (GHAI), and Ms. Marie Pauline Voufo (SAILD).

FAQ: How is Cameroon addressing its immunization funding gap? Cameroon faces a 130 billion CFA franc gap, about USD 226 million, by 2030 as domestic funding for the Expanded Programme on Immunization fell from 34.8 percent in 2021 to 14.5 percent in 2024. GHAI's Harmelle Ename-Ekoman points to timely co-financing as the first line of defense for the 130,000 zero-dose children. Hon. Lawson Tabot argues for a legally mandated, independent immunization fund modeled on Ghana and Senegal.

Join GHAI as the experts explore how legislative action, civil society partnerships and robust public demand can transform the Abuja Declaration health promises into concrete budget lines for primary healthcare.

About "One Shot, Long Life!"

One Shot, Long Life! is a podcast on immunization financing and vaccine advocacy in Africa and Asia. Host Abel Akara Ticha talks with parliamentarians, civil society leaders and health experts about how countries fund vaccines and keep children protected from preventable disease.

What is a zero-dose child? A zero-dose child has never received a single routine vaccine. Reaching these children is the front line of global immunization.

Why does domestic vaccine financing matter? As donor support tapers, national budgets cover a growing share of vaccine costs. Steady domestic funding keeps children protected year after year.

Follow the Global Health Advocacy Incubator on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advocacyincubator/

Podcast home: https://www.advocacyincubator.org/one-shot-long-life

Listen and follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and your favorite podcast app.