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Credits and Copyright
  Sixth GAVI Board Meeting, 17 October 2001, Ottawa, Canada

October 2001

2. Roles and Responsibilities

Discussion

  • As GAVI is now moving from initial phase of proposal development and approval to a new phase of implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and lesson learned, it is appropriate to take stock of roles and responsibilities and ways of working, while keeping in mind the guiding principles agreed upon earlier.

  • Even though GAVI is thought to have a light structure, the organogram (Powerpoint document – 36kb) is actually quite complex, with task forces, regional working groups, etc(1).

  • The idea of a lean Secretariat is not quite accurate – the Working Group is acting as a virtual secretariat, with the distinction that the members remain in the partner agencies(2). What is important is that there is clear accountability for priority tasks assigned by the Board, and that the authority of the Working Group does not exceed that given to the Secretariat.

  • The Board representatives from developing countries expressed a need for clarification of their role, including delineation of their constituencies and responsibilities for consultation. In order to function effectively they need more support and more time to turn around the documents that are circulated. It may be that the Secretariat could provide additional logistical and communication support to the new Board member from India, as it is now doing for the Minister of Health from Mali.

  • The role of the national ICCs should not be confused with that of partners at the national level; ICCs have been created to improve collaboration between partners, not as implementation mechanisms. The same principle applies to all GAVI coordinating mechanisms at all levels.

  • As we review the Terms of Reference on Task Forces and we consider devolving specific functions of task forces back to partners, we need to maintain the coordination aspect – but this could be done through a lighter structure than a task force.

  • An external review of the functions of the Working Group, task forces and other GAVI mechanisms may be helpful, in order to design options for the future.

  • We need to be careful about how we portray the relationship between GAVI, the Vaccine Fund and the global immunization community – the Vaccine Fund is not at the center of our work but a defined and limited effort within the larger context.

  • Capacity building efforts must be within the context of the health system; while we should not should dilute our own focus from immunization, health systems improvements should be an indicator for capacity building.

DECISIONS

The Board:

2.1 decided to further develop the "Roles & Responsibilities" paper, taking into account discussions and any further input based on the paper, and the time frames agreed upon in the Proto-Board meeting(3). Specific decision points to be put to the Board at the next meeting.

2.2 requested the Working Group to report back to the Board as soon as possible with further clarification on:

2.2.1 the relationship between the Working Group, Secretariat and Board; and

2.2.2 the relationship between the GAVI Board and the Fund Board.

2.3 recommended that the Working Group consider undertaking a cost analysis of the various GAVI mechanisms and the structure as a whole (direct costs as well as costs assumed by Partners)

2.4 agreed that GAVI needs to remain flexible and informal, but that workplans should be more outcome-focused

2.5 requested that the Working Group present the Board with options, when appropriate, rather than single recommendations; decision-making needs to be done at the Board level

2.6 requested that GAVI elaborate its workplans linked to outputs so that progress may be more easily monitored – it should look more like a "business" plan

2.7 requested that the analysis of financial contributions to immunization be produced urgently to assure that the Vaccine Fund was not replacing other sources of funding.

1. Currently, the GAVI Secretariat and the Independent Review Committee are the only mechanisms that are completely supported by the Secretariat’s budget; teleconference costs for the Working Group and Board are also covered by the Secretariat. Task forces are primarily supported by Partners (the Financing Task Force receives funding from the Secretariat because of the budgetary constraints of the World Bank); regional working groups are completely funded by Partners.

2. The Working Group, composed of partner representatives located within the partner agencies, work part-time for the Working Group and all costs are covered by the partners.

3. The documents and decisions made by the GAVI Proto-Board were subsequently adopted by the GAVI Board at its first meeting.

 

 

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