The government may have to budget its own funds to finance immunization programmes and avoid dependence on donor money.
The new move comes as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, made sweeping changes in its financing programme. The global vaccines body is introducing fixed vaccine budget envelopes as part of its reform programme for 2026–2030.
Under the arrangement, Gavi support to countries like Uganda will have a defined funding limit. Jimmy Ameny, the GAVI funds coordinator at the Ministry of Health, revealed that Uganda has been granted a limit of spending 51million dollars on vaccines annually, and yet the country has previously been spending up to 67 million dollars annually.
Ameny said Uganda might have to rethink such programmes in the future with the increase in vaccine prices and pressures such as the high influx of refugees. He said Gavi is providing 93% of the funds needed for the upcoming campaign and said such could become impossible in the future with looming grant cuts.
He added that Uganda needs to put aside more money in the next five years to be able to co- finance vaccine doses going to refugee communities, with the country already having refugees in excess of two million and others expected to come. Meanwhile, Uganda already contributes to Gavi’s co-financing arrangement whereby the country offers the donor organization nine million dollars per year. This money, according to Ameny, only caters for 20 percent of the country’s annual vaccine needs.
Statistics by the Uganda National Expanded Programme on Immunisation (UNEPI) show that Uganda fully funds six vaccine antigens catering for the traditional six killer diseases, including polio, measles, diphtheria, TB, whooping cough and tetanus. The eight other diseases currently targeted and on the government’s free immunization schedule are mainly funded by Gavi.
The new developments in the vaccine programme worried Maracha Constituency MP Uhuru Nelson, who, while attending the Ministry of Health meeting, revealed that they are likely to see more stockouts. He reports that the host community in Maracha is already struggling to share a few doses with refugees and South Sudanese who cross the border to access health services in Uganda.
Dr Michael Baganizi, the UNEPI Program Manager, said that currently vaccine doses supplied to districts are not predetermined and are based on demands by the districts. He explained that usually refugee-hosting districts place orders with a clear picture of their contexts, expecting refugees to also benefit. With fixed vaccine budget envelopes, experts worry that such arrangements as described by Baganizi may become problematic.
