Achieving our goal of sustainably improving coverage and equity requires strong leadership, management and coordination of immunisation programmes
Achieving our goal of sustainably improving coverage and equity requires strong leadership, management and coordination of immunisation programmes
Through programme capacity assessments, joint appraisals and other discussions with countries, Alliance partners have identified a range of challenges in the area of leadership, management and coordination of immunisation programmes.
In the past, this area has received limited attention and investment. To address this, we are investing more deliberately in strengthening in-country leadership, management and coordination (LMC) in the 2016–2020 strategy period.
Three elements, which have a catalytic impact on the sustainable delivery of immunisation programmes, are part of our approach:
We provide different types of support to strengthen EPI teams, national coordination forums, and technical advisory groups. These are applied and adjusted based on each country’s specific context, needs and requests for support.
Gavi offers a “menu” of interventions that countries can access to address their immunisation management challenges.
Gavi partners help countries to strengthen the managerial capabilities of their EPI teams. For example, a “management partner” can be embedded as a peer coach in the EPI team for one or two years.
In addition, Gavi is developing an innovative management training course for EPI managers and core staff members.
Countries can request support to strengthen practices related to performance management. This type of support , provided by Gavi partners, aims to create lasting behaviour changes and build a greater sense of accountability.
This may include helping EPI teams to use data-driven tools and hold high-level review meetings to ensure that programme implementation is on track.
Countries in the initial self-financing and preparatory transition phases can request Gavi funding for critical new government positions in their immunisation teams. To mitigate risk and ensure sustainability, countries must meet strict requirements to be eligible for this support.
NITAGs play a critical role in ensuring sustainable immunisation programmes. They promote evidence-based decisions and enable countries to take full ownership of their policies and immunisation programmes. To be eligible for new vaccine support from Gavi, countries must explain how NITAGs are involved in their decision-making processes.
NITAGs provide objective recommendations based on scientific evidence in areas such as:
A wide range of tools are available here to support countries in creating, strengthening and evaluating NITAGs. Countries can also request technical assistance from Gavi to strengthen their NITAGs.