As 2025 draws to a close, we look at: Our picks for the most impactful immunisation stories of the year. Highlights from the past half decade of vaccination efforts in lower-income countries.
What’s next for Gavi?
Fight against major killer of women beats target; saves more than a million lives
Gavi, lower-income countries, and partners join forces to protect more than 86 million girls with HPV vaccine, preventing more than 1.4 million cervical cancer deaths – reaching target ahead of schedule. Thanks to these efforts, the vaccine is now available in countries where 89 per cent of global cervical cancer cases currently occur and the African region – where the disease continues to be a major killer of women, and where HPV coverage rates stood at 4 per cent a mere decade ago – now has among the highest coverage rates in the world.
Malaria vaccines are now protecting millions of children across Africa
More than 40 million doses of malaria vaccines have been delivered to 24 countries across Africa in the fastest routine vaccine rollout in Gavi’s 25-year history. This new tool is now protecting millions of the most vulnerable children in some of the highest malaria burden countries in the world. Now new deals are helping reduce costs further, enabling Gavi and partners to reach millions more children by the end of the decade.
New study finds emergency vaccinations reduce outbreak deaths and cases by nearly 60%
In the world’s first-ever comprehensive look at the impact of vaccination on global health security, a study by researchers at the Burnet Institute published in the BMJ examined 210 outbreaks of cholera, Ebola, measles, meningitis, and yellow fever in 49 lower-income countries between 2000 and 2023. It found that emergency vaccination cut cases and deaths by nearly 60% on average and decreased the occurrence of large outbreaks.
Innovative partnership reaches children in conflict and crisis zones with lifesaving vaccines
Nearly one-third of the world’s “zero-dose” children – those who haven’t received even a single dose of basic vaccines – live in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Working in partnership with local civil society organisations and humanitarian partners, Gavi and the International Rescue Committee’s Reaching Every Child in Humanitarian Settings (REACH) consortium aims to reach the children in conflict and crisis zones that health systems fail to protect. In October 2025, the partnership – which is now delivering more than 1 million doses a month to the most vulnerable children in Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Sudan – announced it had hit the major milestone of 20 million vaccine doses administered since its launch in 2022.
The Long View: Highlights From The Last Five Years
Despite a major global health emergency, countries and Gavi worked together to successfully achieve key targets set out in the Alliance’s fifth strategic period from 2020 to 2025 (Gavi 5.0):
Between 2020 and 2025, vaccines helped reduce under-five mortality in lower-income countries by 10%
Children in Gavi-supported countries are now more protected against a broader range of diseases and health threats, with coverage across ten key vaccines reaching 63 per cent by the end of 2024, surpassing the 60 per cent target set for 2025
Gavi-supported vaccination helped prevent between 7 and 8 million deaths
These efforts generated US$ 80 billion in economic savings for countries
Through COVAX, Gavi and partners delivered 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to 146 countries – an unprecedented response to an unprecedented global health emergency.
Yet vaccine inequity persisted, and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic led Gavi to set up new mechanisms:
The African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA), designed in partnership with the African Union, makes up to US$ 1.2 billion available to accelerate the expansion of commercially viable vaccine manufacturing in Africa – in efforts to support global and regional supply security and pandemic preparedness.
The First Response Fund, set up to kickstart responses to major public health emergencies, helped Gavi secure mpox vaccines within days of a WHO-declared public health emergency of international concern.
Routine immunisation suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but after targeted efforts, lower-income countries have nearly recovered – with Africa in particular back to pre-pandemic levels despite a rising birth cohort meaning more children must be protected each year.
The Road Ahead: Leaping Into The Future
Despite the challenging fiscal climate, countries and partners have shown unprecedented commitment to Gavi by pledging US$ 9.5 billion towards the organisation’s 6.0 (2026 to 2030) strategy, with Croatia, Hungary, Indonesia, Morocco, Uganda among new donors, while new and expanded partnerships with multilateral development banks will provide countries with flexible, long-term support as they transition from aid to self-sustained financing.
With this level of donor and partner backing, Gavi 6.0 will mark Gavi’s most ambitious strategy yet, offering countries the widest portfolio of vaccines while sharpening focus on the most vulnerable. Support for fragile and conflict-affected settings will increase by 15 per cent and the new Resilience Mechanism will provide rapid, flexible support to populations in crisis so immunisation remains a lifeline even in conflict and humanitarian emergencies.
This renewed focus is underpinned by the Gavi Leap, a transformation agenda that translates the Lusaka Agenda into concrete reforms. Guided by principles of country-centricity, national self-reliance, focused mandates, and finite lifespans, the Leap has streamlined the Secretariat – including a 33 per cent reduction in headcount – and is reshaping Gavi’s operating model to ensure Gavi is best placed to deliver five more years of saving lives and protecting health through the power of immunisation.
