Alwaleed Philanthropies, a charitable and philanthropic organisation, is investing USD5m in its collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, it was reported on Sunday.

The commitment will offer extra funding between 2020 and 2024 to support organisations known by Gavi as 'pacesetters' that are developing new innovations to improve vaccine access and delivery, particularly in urban areas. The investment will be made through Gavi's INFUSE initiative (Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in Immunisation), which identifies these 'pacesetters', offers funding and support for them, and connects them to authorities in countries that required vaccination support.

The grant is part of a range of efforts by Alwaleed Philanthropies to improve routine immunisation and contributes to Gavi's mission to ensure that every child is immunised with basic life-saving vaccines, no matter where they live, and builds on the original USD1m investment made in 2015 to support vaccines in Timor Leste, Kiribati, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Guyana for the 2016-2020 programme.