Established in 2016, the loan buydown facility is an innovative three-way financing mechanism that provides Gavi with low-interest loans to improve immunisation coverage across Africa’s Sahel region.

The facility, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Agence française de développement (AFD, French Development Agency), has mobilised €100 million to purchase vaccines and strengthen health systems in six African countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

This includes introducing meningitis A, pentavalent, pneumococcal, rotavirus and yellow fever vaccines in Niger as well as the pneumococcal vaccine in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. It has also been used to strengthen Burkina Faso’s health system.

The partnership will contribute to protecting 15 million children against vaccine-preventable diseases, helping to save half a million lives. It also reinforces France’s commitment to immunisation and contributes to strengthening health systems in French-speaking Africa.