By Fernandes Kanyaka
Mozambique has become the first country to receive the Gavi Leap Champion recognition, following its leadership in country ownership, health-system strengthening and sustainable investment in immunisation and healthcare.
The recognition, announced on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, acknowledges Mozambique’s efforts to align partner support with national health priorities and strengthen systems capable of delivering sustainable health outcomes.
Mozambique was the first country to implement Gavi’s new approach to holistic immunisation budgets under the 2026–2030 strategic shift, aligning vaccine financing with its National Immunisation Strategy.
The approach is part of the Gavi Leap, an initiative designed to make Gavi’s operating model more country-centred, simpler and more responsive to national priorities.
For Mozambique, the reform represents a shift towards greater national ownership of health planning and financing, with government priorities providing the framework around which development partners and other stakeholders coordinate their investments.
A new model for country ownership
The Gavi Leap Champion recognition is intended for countries demonstrating exceptional performance in areas including country ownership, health-system strengthening and sustainable health impact.
Accepting the recognition, Mozambique’s Minister of Health, Dr. Ussene Hilário Isse, said the award reflected the country’s commitment to reforms led by national priorities.
“This recognition reflects the commitment of the President of the Republic of Mozambique to strengthening our health system through country-led reforms, sustainable investment, and better alignment with partners,” Isse said.
“We are proud to be a pioneer of the Gavi Leap initiative, which places national priorities and the health of our population at the center of decision-making.”
The country’s reforms extend beyond immunisation. Mozambique has also engaged in health-system discussions through the Lusaka Agenda and the African Union, while pursuing reforms in integrated community healthcare, health financing and supply-chain systems.
One of the country’s recent milestones was the adoption of the 2026 National Health System Law, which formalised the Community Health Subsystem and incorporated remuneration for community health workers into the national wage bill.
The reforms are intended to strengthen the role of community-level health services while embedding community health workers more firmly within the country’s public health system.
Lessons for African health systems
Gavi Board Chair Rt Hon Helen Clark said Mozambique’s experience demonstrated how national ownership could help drive health-sector progress.
“By aligning national priorities, strengthening community health systems and bringing partners together around a common agenda, Mozambique embodies the ambition of the Gavi Leap,” Clark said.
She added that Mozambique’s experience could provide lessons for other countries pursuing similar reforms.
For Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Mozambique’s recognition reflects the broader objective of putting countries in the lead in determining their health priorities.
“Mozambique exemplifies the vision of the Gavi Leap: a country leading from the front, aligning partners behind national priorities and investing in systems that can deliver lasting impact,” Nishtar said.
She said the country’s experience demonstrated how leadership, country ownership and sustained investment could contribute to improved health outcomes for children and families.
Towards greater national leadership
The recognition comes as global health institutions increasingly seek approaches that give national governments greater responsibility for determining how external health financing is planned and deployed.
Under the Gavi Leap approach, country priorities are intended to provide the basis for coordinating immunisation investments while strengthening broader health systems.
Mozambique’s experience therefore places the country at the forefront of efforts to link immunisation financing with wider health-system reforms rather than treating vaccination programmes as isolated interventions.
The Gavi Leap Champion recognition was presented during a Gavi-convened dialogue titled “From global reform to country leadership and last-mile impact – a Gavi Leap dialogue,” held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
For Mozambique, the recognition marks a milestone in its efforts to strengthen national leadership of the health sector while demonstrating how government, development partners and communities can be brought together around nationally defined health priorities.