At the margin of the 78th World Health Assembly that is being convened between 19th and 27th May 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland, members of the Solomon Islands Delegation have attended various side events and side meetings.
One of such side meetings was the GAVI (The Vaccine Alliance) SEARO (South East Asia Regional Office) and WPRO (Western Pacific Regional Office) Constituency meeting that was recently held at the GAVI Headquarters bringing in officials from selected countries including Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Laos Republic, and Cambodia. The meeting was hosted by the Health Minister of Indonesia, Honourable Mr. Budi Gunadi Sadakin, who is also a current Board Member of GAVI representing SEARO and WPRO regions.
The constituency meeting provided a platform and an opportunity upon which the GAVI Secretariat informed government officials on the current health financing landscape and impact on immunization programme. It further provided information on the grant cycle alignment with GAVI’s 6.0’s strategic framework 2026-2030.
In contributing to the discussions, Permanent Secretary Mrs. Pauline McNeil acknowledged the Chair, Honourable Budi Gunadi for representing the region’s priorities and for the role upon which Hon.Budi played in advocating for Solomon Islands to be granted a 4 year extension of GAVI support, which was approved in December 2024. Health Secretary further acknowledged the GAVI Secretariat for the ongoing support to MHMS’s efforts on its immunization programme that leads to the protection our children from diseases.
Health Secretary made mention that with recent developments in the Global Health financing space and a potential and possible change in policy on eligibility would derail some of the ongoing efforts of the immunization programme in country and would impact on vaccine procurement, support for routine immunization, its ability to sustain post pandemic recovery and further put risk on the revival of our HPV vaccination programme. Thus Solomon Islands still is very much reliant on GAVI support and is not ready to fully make the transition out of GAVI support.
While recognising the challenges in global health financing at hand, Health Secretary also emphasised the importance for countries to strive hard to increase its domestic resource mobilization. After all, countries must be able to meet some of the health needs of their own people. Tax reforms—such as implementing excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary beverages – are essential to generate additional revenue to support and help fund the country’s health system including health services such as the Immunization Programme.
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