Civil society organisation support is primarily through the Health Systems Funding Platform which aims to support countries in advancing their national health strategies
Current support for civil society organisations (CSOs) builds on the experience and evaluation of the pilot Type A and Type B programmes. Support to CSOs can now be requested as part of a country’s Health Systems Funding Platform (HSFP) application, whereby the allocation of funds to CSOs is determined by governments based on a country’s national health strategy. This is the recommended option for CSO support. However, governments may identify CSOs to receive direct funding under the HSFP. Gavi’s programmatic support is detailed in CSO implementation framework which has been developed to define CSO engagement more strategically at the country levels.
The Gavi CSO Constituency leads the implementation of the Gavi Business Plan activity that aims to increase civil society participation in HSFP processes and development of immunisation policies at the country level.
In September 2011, on behalf of the Gavi CSO Constituency, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was contracted for this purpose. CRS and the Gavi CSO Constituency work closely with the Gavi Secretariat to strengthen country-level civil society networks and platforms. This approach aims to encourage better coordination of CSOs in national health sector planning and policy processes in countries transitioning to the HSFP.
To date, CSOs have been engaged through the HSFP in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
Country-by-country approaches
In addition to the option for direct support for CSOs under the HSFP as described above, where rare and exceptional circumstances warrant a tailored approach, Gavi also retains the flexibility to support CSOs directly.
Any such approach will be developed in response to a country-specific analysis, particularly taking into consideration those cases where CSOs play an integral role in delivering vaccines and the relationship between CSOs and governments is not well established.