Under the banner of “efficiently delivering vaccines to millions of children, tracking identity and immunization records in a digitized manner and incentivizing the delivery of vaccines”, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance - leading partner and catalyst, and Mastercard acting in the capacity of technology partner - have embarked in a Public Private Partnership aiming at deploying the Mastercard Wellness Pass for interested Gavi eligible countries on December  2018. Though major progress has been made in availing immunization in a sustainable manner, one in five children still misses out on routine-life saving immunizations. This partnership aims to leverage state of the art technology by bringing the Smart into the traditional immunization programs for optimal impact in terms of reach, adherence, efficiency and centralized record keeping of children immunizations.

Mastercard is a technology company in the global payments industry committed to leading the way toward a World Beyond Cash™. Mastercard is also a business-to-business firm, providing franchise, technology, and advisory services to commercial, non-profit, and public sector customers that then go on to serve their clients. This approach to the last-mile experience allows for the creation of nuanced, localized solutions targeted at the end user. Mastercard has made a bold commitment to financial inclusion—to reach 500 million people previously excluded from financial services by 2020 including 40 million merchants. In making this promise, Mastercard highlighted the importance of public-private partnerships.

While ambitious, this goal is not out of scope of the company’s activities. Mastercard has launched large-scale projects in more than 50 countries, bringing more than 300 million previously excluded consumers and merchants into the formal economy in just the last few years. Mastercard brings its expertise in digital infrastructure, data analytics, innovation practices, and sustainable business models, specializing in extending the reach of existing infrastructure through innovative solutions, linking disparate partners and systems. To succeed solutions must be tailored to the context; they should utilize existing elements of the payments infrastructure and build new services that involve players like development organizations, humanitarian organizations and governments.

On the occasion of the AMC Summit, Mastercard committed $25 million to Gavi to support the core work of COVAX but also to assist, through the Mastercard Wellness Pass for Covid, with the roll out and delivery of vaccines across developing countries, including to remote and marginalized communities . Mastercard has also established a global fundraising campaign with Global Citizen (over USD 3M already raised), connecting with customers and cardholders in an effort to raise money for COVAX.

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