Swot Analysis of the Gavi Alliance - Case Study Example

Charity" - A Global Business Table of Contents 1Introduction 3 2The Gavi Alliance 3 3Role of Charities 4 4Swot Analysis of the Gavi Alliance 4 1Strengths of the GAVI Alliance 4 2Weaknesses of the GAVI Alliance 6 3Opportunities 7 4Threats to the Organization 8 5Conclusion 9 Bibliography: 10 1 Introduction The role that charitable organizations play in the society is immeasurable. They have been involved in the improvement of the lives of populace who experience hard times like inability to pay for their education among other issues. It, therefore, goes without saying that these organizations are vital to the survival of the society. However, there are some charities that are formed mainly to gain from donations. They are seen as sources of wealth and not to help the needy members of the society. This article will seek to evaluate the role played by these organizations with the aim of seeking whether they are worthy being allowed to continue existing. 2 The Gavi Alliance The Gavi Alliance is a charitable organization within the United Kingdom. It is the largest charitable organization in terms of the amount of money that it collects. This information provided by the Guardian Newspaper indicates that the organization has revenue of 520,252,270 pounds. This makes the organization a very influential one when it comes to collecting funds towards its pet project. On its website, the organisation states that it raises funds for the funding of immunization exercise in the developing world. This is something as per the website that wealthy parents in the developed world take for granted. The organization whose full name is Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations was formed in the year 2000. It has been involved in funding immunization campaigns in 70 of the world’s poorest states. This means that though it has its headquarters in the United Kingdom, it has operational bases in different parts of the world. It has combined the efforts of the main players in the field of immunization world. These organizations include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, and the World Bank. There are a number of other organizations and governments that are incorporated into a think tank that has the role of coming up with strategies and funds for immunization campaigns in these countries that it is found in. 3 Role of Charities The spirit of giving in the world is always high. In the U.S, for example, the Independent sector reports that in, 1998, 70 percent of the population made charitable gifts and money, 55 percent of these also gave their time (Brooks 2005). In this regard, several people see the importance of helping those in need either with gifts or money. They may even give up some of their own time to be involved in activities like cleaning the homes of the elderly, serving in the soup kitchens among other activities. In the United Kingdom (UK), the organizations like GAVI Alliance have taken the initiative to bring together organizations and businesses to raise money towards the good of children in the developing world. It is apparent that the government has a hard time getting all the services to the people. It has limitations as far as funds go, as well as, manpower. The government is, however, a big player within this social work sector. There is, therefore, a mash up of both government and charitable organizations in providing social services to the needy. 4 Swot Analysis of the Gavi Alliance The essence of this analysis is to evaluate the GAVI Alliance in terms of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the organization faces within the campaigns that it is involved in. 1 Strengths of the GAVI Alliance As stated above, the organization is the biggest in the United Kingdom. This has the advantage of allowing an ease in the collection of funds towards its targets. Due to its size, the organisation has the ability to source for funds outside the United Kingdom which allows it to grow its revenue base. This indicates that the organization has the funds to engage in the immunization campaigns, something that improves the livelihoods of millions of children the world over. Strength has to be found in its ability to secure funds for its campaigns. In its official website, the organization has indicated that it has managed to secure long term funding for its activities wherever it is found. This has meant that the organization has the ability to achieve its goals within a stable and certain environment. According to Anheier (2005), the ability to secure enough funding for any charitable organization is one that has the management of these organizations having headaches. This is because it is hard to actually move people or organizations to the point that they would be willing to give out money. To that extent, the GAVI Alliance has achieved a level of success that should not go without mention. The GAVI Alliance has also managed its campaigns in a manner that empowers the stakeholders in the different countries in which it has operations. According to its website the organization indicates that the organization encourages the different stakeholders to set their own priorities. This ensures that the different immunization campaigns are owned by those on whom it is carried out on. As a result, the stakeholders are more receptive to the campaigns, which increase the success level of the different campaigns. According to the website, the organization attempts to play a lesser role in the entire process. This is a shift from the often held norm that the organizations that provide the funding get to dictate the manner that the funds will be used. Aside from the vaccinations which are never a sure thing in terms of getting to the target recipients, the organization allocates between 15 and 25% of its resources towards improvement of the manpower as well as the facilities within the recipient country. This translates to ensuring that the strategies have a durability quality to them. In this regard, the organisation’s objectives are not quickly forgotten once the project has been completed. This is an indication of the level of dedication that the organization has to its work and projects. Another indicator of the strength of this organization has been its ability to successfully marshal public-private partnership to its course (Clapham and Robinson 2009). As seen in the organizational make up of the organization, GAVI Alliance has membership of very influential and well financed backers from both public and private quarters. The members such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are capable of raising huge sums of money as well as the resources such as internet and other vital software that will ensure that the organization succeeds. On the other hand, the public organizations such as the World Health Organization play an important role of placing their experiences as a resource into the functioning of the organization. 2 Weaknesses of the GAVI Alliance The organisation has a number of weaknesses that have played a part in slowing the level of progress that it makes. The field in which the organisation operates is one that has a challenging nature. This is because the organization can only do so much in its attempts to avail the required the vaccines. The dynamic nature of the different diseases some of which have the capacity to mutate into resistant strains means the organization has to spend a lot of money in ensuring that it gets to fight these infections. In addition, the organization has had the problem of imposing too much of new systems of operations. This has made the level of operation and implementation of its strategies both difficult as well as expensive for the recipient nations (Muraskin 2005). This according to Muraskin has had a negative effect of undermining the role of the Health ministries of the countries that are recipient to the aid. The policy makers within the GAVI Alliance have, therefore, to look at this matter and come up with a method that is much more implementation friendly. This is the only way to ensure that the children, who are recipients to this assistance, are getting the vital life line that these vaccines grant to them. Another weakness of the GAVI Alliance is the fact that the organization has a policy that advocates for co-financing of the projects with the recipient country. The reason for doing this as per the organization’s website is to ensure sustainability of the project even after the organization has left the country. Because of the insufficiency of resources within most hast nations, this has become a reason as to why the projects fail almost immediately. This has a lot to do with the fact that most nations have to allocate the resources as per priority. This means that the host nation may opt to fund the project only to withdraw the funding after a while in order to deal with another matter. This means that the project stalls and as a result GAVI will not have attained its primary objective. 3 Opportunities Though the organization has a number of setbacks in some of its campaigns, there is, however, light in the horizon. The website has listed an outlook that the organization holds for its operations. One of these outlooks is that of ensuring that the world averts the deaths of four million children through immunizing 250 million children by 2015. This means that after a resource mobilization meeting held in London in 2011, the organization is on track to realize this goal. The organization has a framework that it hopes will see it through with this target. This includes the fact that the organization has managed to secure funding of its campaign. Additionally, the demand for reasonably priced and effective drugs is high. This means that the organization which has the capacity to ensure that the provision of these drugs is successful will continue to remain relevant. As a result, the organization has a high chance of getting further funding to proceed with its work as well as gaining acceptance the world over for the work that it is involved in. According to the website, the demand for the rotavirus vaccine support had grown nine fold in 2011 while that for pneumococcal vaccine support had almost doubled. This is an affirmation of the quality of drugs that this organization provides as well as an indication of the market for these drugs in the developing world. The GAVI website also indicates that the organization is on target to reaching its 2013 goal of providing full access to the five-in-one pentavalent (Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis, hepatitis B, Haemophilius influenzae type B) to all GAVI eligible countries. The organization is seeking to ensure that the countries in which the organization is located will have the chance to fighting these diseases. This will ensure that the livelihoods of the children within these nations are improved. The target of 2013 means that the organization has placed a challenge to itself to ensure that the medication reaches its intended destination which is a commendable undertaking. 4 Threats to the Organization One of the threats that the organization currently faces is that of imposition of taxation by the governments in which the organization operates (Koele 2007). The governments of many nations may at times experience cash shortfalls thus causing a deficit in the budget. As a means of attempting to plug in these holes, the government will find itself turning to the charitable organizations for the funds. This means that the organizations are left with limited funds after they are taxed thus necessitating them to down scale their projects. This act has the danger of interfering with the effect and sustainability of the campaign. Another issue that has dogged the charities is that of the limitations of the amounts that they receive as well as the threats of the failure to meet its funding targets. In the case of GAVI, this may not be concern currently. However, there are times when the donors are sceptical about the fruitfulness of certain undertakings and as a result deny funds for them. This means that the organization has to look to other places for the funds and there is always the high possibility that the project will end up being shelved all together much to the detriment of those who stood to gain from it. At the same time passage of laws such as Data Protection Act 1998 and the draft Charities Bill (Spedding 2004) in the United Kingdom have placed a lot of pressure as well as increasing expenses to the charities like GAVI when they attempt to comply with them. 5 Conclusion The role of charitable organizations like the Gavi Alliance has been without a doubt immense. It has allowed a great many people to continue to live normal lives. At the same time, the organization has proven that not all organizations are formed to swindle money from the public. As a result of the SWOT analysis, the company has proven to be sustainable all on its own since the weaknesses are overshadowed by the strengths which allow the company to be able to weather the threats that it faces. Bibliography: Anheier, H. K., 2005. Non-profit Organizations: Theory, Management, Policy. Oxon: Routledge. Brooks, A. C., 2005. Gifts of Time and Money: The Role of Charity in America’s Communities. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Clapham, A. and Robinson, M., 2009. Realizing Human Rights To Health: Swiss Human Rights Book. Zurich: Rüffer und Rub. GAVI Alliance, 2012. About the Alliance. Accessed on 11th November, 2012 from http://www.gavialliance.org/about/. Koele, I. A., 2007. International Taxation of Philanthropy. Amsterdam: IBFD Publications BV. Muraskin, W., 2005. Crusade to Immunize the World’s Children. California: USC Marshall Global Bio Business Initiative. Rodgers, S., 2012. Britain’s top 1,000 Charities ranked by Donations. Who raises the most Money? Accessed on 11th November, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/apr/24/top-1000-charities-donations-britain. Spedding, L. S., 2004. Due Diligence and Corporate Governance. London: Reed Elsevier (UK) Ltd. Read More