Manager, Innovative Finance (Temporary)

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of 1 billion children and the prevention of more than 17 million future deaths.

Gavi has a five-year replenishment cycle where donors pledge resources against a five-year investment plan. The last replenishment took place in 2020, hosted by the UK, and world leaders pledged US$ 8.8 billion for Gavi’s 5.0, 2021-2025 strategy. 2023 is a mid-term review (MTR) year when the Alliance looked back at the achievements to-date and looked ahead at the needs in the remainder of this strategic period and beyond towards the next replenishment. Spain hosted the high-level MTR event in mid-June.

Through the ground-breaking COVAX Facility and the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), Gavi, working with the international community, took urgent action in accelerating access to COVID-19 vaccines no matter where they live. Today, COVAX has shipped almost 2 billion vaccines, the largest vaccine rollout in history. Gavi is now working with countries to reverse the effects of the pandemic on routine immunisation and health systems, to get routine immunisation back on track, relaunch the HPV vaccine programme, rollout the malaria vaccine and continue to support countries with COVID-19 vaccination programmes.

Following the MTR Gavi will be heading towards a replenishment for the 2026-2030 period. In an increasingly constrained global health space, more resources from diverse and sustainable sources are required, and available financing must be leveraged strategically and efficiently to unlock the greatest level of impact possible. A comprehensive approach is needed to attract, retain, and multiply the financial and business resources of sovereign donors, the private sector, and other development institutions to strategically support countries, partners, and the Gavi Secretariat as it seeks to ensure sustainability in its ambitious immunisation programmes and safeguard global health security.

Under the oversight of the Managing Director for Resource Mobilisation, Private Sector Partnerships & Innovative Finance (RMPSPIF), the Innovative Finance (IF) team supports Gavi’s mission through three main roles (i) managing the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) on behalf of Gavi including coordinating with the IFFIm Board on defining and executing the IFFIm strategy, coordinating with the World Bank, IFFIm’s Treasury Manager, for the delivery of IFFIm’s capital markets-related services and coordinating the engagement with IFFIm’s eleven sovereign donors, (ii) developing, coordinating, refining and executing new and existing financial mechanisms as needed to support Gavi’s core strategy and its evolving role in PPR and the global health ecosystem, and (iii) providing expert advice on innovative financing modalities, including financial structuring to unlock financing partnerships addressing Gavi’s needs.

THE ROLE

Please note this is a temporary role (approximately 12 months).

The role of the Manager, Innovative Finance is to facilitate management of the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (“IFFIm”) operations, perform analysis (financial and other), and provide leadership and implementation support for Gavi’s innovative finance mechanisms. The Manager will also prepare presentations, documents, papers for a range of audiences and objectives and conduct research and analysis on innovative finance initiatives.

MAIN DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

Innovative Finance (IF) project and activity management
• Support the execution and ongoing management of Gavi’s innovative finance instruments;
• Form and maintain relationships with project leaders, Gavi teams, external partners (e.g. the World Bank, the IFFIm Board, donors);
• Support new product development efforts to address strategic needs in coordination with other teams in the Secretariat;
• Support efforts to strategically expand and/or further leverage existing IF mechanisms.
• Support the Secretariat in managing and using the Gavi Guarantee Facility as appropriate.

Research and analysis
• Research, analyse and report data for Innovative Finance team using online and other resources, as well as through interviews and discussions as needed;
• Effectively translate research and ideas into memoranda, presentations, board papers, financial models, and other materials;
• Manage or supervise IFFIm financial data for the IF team and its partners, including coordinating with Gavi Finance team and external partners such as the World Bank

Project and activity leadership and support
• Participate in and prepare papers and presentations for IF at Gavi/IFFIm board meetings and collaborate with IFFIm Board Special Adviser to execute board directives where appropriate;

• Collaborate with Resource Mobilisation and Private Sector Partnerships teams to support IFFIm donor relations and communications, in anticipation of positioning IFFIm to support Gavi in the next strategic cycle;
• Manage operations, prepare work plan documentation, and, where appropriate, take leadership of innovative finance projects;
• Provide technical support to Gavi staff on innovative finance products, including IFFIm;
• Prepare agendas, content, presentations and minutes for Innovative Finance meetings and manage follow up actions as appropriate;
• Review and assist with preparation of media and communication materials;
• Represent IF at meetings and events and give presentations internally and externally, as needed.

Other responsibilities
• Coordinate and implement information and document management systems for Innovative; Finance, as part of Gavi’s existing information management systems and initiatives;
• Assist in managing consultants engaged to work on Innovative Finance initiatives;
• Occasionally travel to support innovative finance strategy;
• Any other duties that might be required.

Note: The essential functions listed in this section are not exhaustive of the job responsibilities; other duties may be assigned consistently with the department needs.

QUALIFICATIONS

ACADEMIC

• Undergraduate or master’s degree from an accredited university, in engineering, mathematics, economics, business, accounting or finance.

WORK EXPERIENCE
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a combination of applied financial modelling or structuring, capital markets, research and analysis and project management, with private financial sector experience indispensable and some experience in global public health preferred;
• Corporate or structured finance experience preferred.

SKILLS/COMPETENCIES
• Excellent understanding of finance concepts and of financial markets;
• Highly developed analytical, problem-solving and research skills, with the ability to work with large amounts of data;
• Advanced financial modelling skills;
• Outstanding communication skills: able to communicate complex financial analyses and information in an easily comprehensible manner, effective in writing reports and proposals and in preparing presentations;
• Demonstrated capacity to be conversant with the practical workings of the international capital markets;
• Ability to think and work independently and to meet aggressive deadlines;
• Highly proficient with MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Word;
• Team player, collaborative style, creative and innovative with an engaging personality;
• Able to work effectively in a multi-cultural environment;
• Tact and discretion;
• Travel requirements: 10%.

LANGUAGES

• English required; French would be an asset.

CONTACTS

Internal contacts:
• Gavi Secretariat.

External contacts:
• Alliance Partners;
• IFFIm Board members;
• Government donors;
• World Bank;
• Commercial banks and other financial intermediaries;
• Private sector / investors.