Contents

Now that you know how to estimate your immunization programme costs and budgets, you need to consider how much money is available to implement the programme. Funding, or financing, can come from a variety of domestic or international sources. But ultimately, the money available to pay for the programme must closely match the budget. If not, your programme will not reach its current and future objectives. It will not be able to do what you want it to do.

Remember that costs are the value of goods and services used in a year, while the budget is the actual amount of money you need to spend. For example, you may budget for and buy a car one year. But since the car is used for many years, an estimate of its cost is spread out over those years as well.

Often when you project costs and budgets, you will have a financing gap between the future budgets of your programme and the money available. This section of Immunization Financing will look at financing gaps and identify their causes. The next section, Financing Strategies, will outline strategies to reduce or fill the gap.

• Recognize how financing relates to costs and budgets.
• Monitor and plan for resources from internal and external sources.
• Analyze a financing gap.