14,077 The Drum Beat 781, November 20, 2019, Window on UNICEF’s Immunisation Communication

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• 1. Implementation Research for Immunization: Summary Report of Global Activities Supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
  This report provides overview of 3 key UNICEF initiatives to improve implementation of policies and programmes designed to increase immunisation coverage and equity as well as broader health programmes. “The emphasis on partnership between research teams and decision makers is broadly recognized as a positive approach.” Moving forward, UNICEF stresses that it will be critical to develop a plan for supporting research teams beyond the research process itself. [Jul 2018]
• 2. Responding to a cVDPV1 Outbreak in Ukraine: Implications, Challenges and Opportunities
  by Nino Khetsuriani, Ihor Perehinets, Dorit Nitzan, Dragoslav Popovic, Thomas Moran, Vusala Allahverdiyeva, Shahin Huseynov, Eugene Gavrilin, Liudmyla Slobodianyk, Olha Izhyk, Anna Sukhodolska, Sahar Hegazi, Katerina Bulavinova, Sergei Platov, and Patrick O’Connor
  After 3-dose oral polio vaccine (OPV) coverage in Ukraine declined from 91% in 2008 to 15% by mid-2015, an outbreak of highly divergent circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV) type 1 was confirmed on August 28 2015. UNICEF, along with the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary, and other partners, developed multi-channeled communication and social mobilisation interventions in an effort to increase public trust in vaccination and mitigate opposition to OPV use. [May 2017]
• 3. Report: Stakeholder Meeting for Vaccine Safety Communication
  UNICEF and WHO have been working closely with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other partners on building and maintaining public trust in vaccine safety. As part of that work, UNICEF and WHO hosted a stakeholders’ meeting on vaccine safety communication in September 2017 in New York, US. This report summarises the proceedings, culling out central themes. [2018]
• See also:
  Social Mobilization for Cholera Prevention & Control in India: Building on the Existing Framework

• 4. UNICEF Niger Polio Videos: Reaching the Last Child, and For Every Child a Leader
  One of the programmatic foci of UNICEF Niger is to support the government in improving coverage to reach children still not covered by routine immunisation, using immunisation as an entry point for health systems strengthening in all areas. Among their strategies is to promote dialogue that is prospective and child- and youth-centred by involving multiple stakeholders, promoting innovation, and fostering partnerships. An illustration of this focus is UNICEF Niger’s action to reach millions of children with polio vaccine across the country during the National Immunization Days (NIDs) conducted in June 2019. Two of the videos available within UNICEF Niger’s YouTube channel depict this work. [Jun 2019]
• 5. Tackling Inequities in Immunization Outcomes in Remote Rural Contexts
  by Orin Levine, Ephrem Lemango, Jeff Bernson, Nikki Gurley, Elizabeth Rowley, and Breese McIlvaine
  The senior experts in global health, including those from UNICEF, who make up the Equity Reference Group for Immunisation (ERG) contend that understanding the challenges and opportunities of immunisation for remote rural populations – along with those in urban and conflict contexts, as related papers outline – is key to improving immunisation equity. They outline what they see as promising approaches at the community level, such as collecting timely and actionable data, motivating health workers, increasing community engagement, communicating social behaviour change, and integrating programmes. [Dec 2018]
• 6. The Influence of Gender on Immunisation: Using an Ecological Framework to Examine Intersecting Inequities and Pathways to Change
  by Marta Feletto and Alyssa Sharkey
  This paper illustrates how an ecological model can serve as a unifying framework to understand how gender-related barriers contribute to underimmunisation, and how to inform the design of health system responses to gender inequity. [Sep 2019]
• See also:
  * Health and Immunisation Services for the Urban Poor in Selected Countries of Asia
  * Use of Dedicated Mobile Teams and Polio Volunteer Community Mobilizers to Increase Access to Zero-Dose Oral Poliovirus Vaccine and Routine Childhood Immunizations in Settlements at High Risk for Polio Transmission in Northern Nigeria

• 7. Evaluation of Immunisation Programme (EPI) in Lebanon (2013-2017)
  Within the UNICEF Health and Nutrition Country Programme in Lebanon, the EPI in Lebanon works to ensure children from all socio-economic, gender, and ethnic backgrounds, especially the most marginalised and vulnerable, have access to routine immunisations. “While vaccination rates across Lebanon continue to be relatively high, even among the various nationalities, data highlighted that there are still pockets of the population which hold considerable misconceptions about the safety and legitimacy of vaccines.” [Nov 2018]
• 8. Use of Social Data and Evidence in Polio Eradication Programme
  by Rustam Haydarov
  UNICEF is one of the partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). In this presentation, UNICEF’s Senior Communication Manager explores the role of social data in the context of current GPEI priorities and in the overall quest to eradicate polio worldwide. [Apr 2018]
• 9. Impact Data – Media Engagement for Supporting Demand Creation for Childhood Immunisation (MERCI)
  As part of the UNICEF-funded MERCI project, in 2015 and 2016, BBC Media Action delivered the radio drama Madubi (meaning “reflection” or “mirror”), 6 episodes of community-based recording Madubi Live, and 14 radio and 5 TV spots to improve immunisation – particularly against polio – in 6 Nigerian states. Among the findings of the endline quantitative evaluation: People who listened to the drama or the radio spots had a more nuanced understanding of polio prevention and were more likely than non-listeners to report discussing plans for immunisation at home.
• 10. Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Relation to Immunisation of Children in Serbia
  UNICEF Serbia carried out this knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) research in 2017 to generate and document evidence of existing immunisation-related attitudes and practices among caregivers/parents from the general population and those coming from vulnerable groups (e.g., Roma communities), which will form the basis for the development of messages and materials for public advocacy campaigns and social mobilisation to support immunisation in the country. [Dec 2018]
• 11. Smart Investments that Improve Immunisation Equity: Evidence-based Activities for Practitioners, Managers and Influencers of Demand Promotion
  Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, joins the international community in recognising the need to increase demand for immunisation if countries are to achieve their coverage and equity goals. Gavi joined with UNICEF, WHO, and the Emory Vaccine Centre to compile evidence on a range of activities designed to reduce hesitancy and convince people to accept and ask for vaccines. A brochure and companion PowerPoint tool are available.
• 12. Development of Electronic Logistics Management Information Systems (eLMIS) in Immunization Supply Chain Management
  In Myanmar, UNICEF is supporting the Ministry of Health and Sports (MoHS) in their efforts to improve immunisation supply chain performance by strengthening the collection, sharing, and use of supply chain data. This case study highlights the key steps that a country can take in deciding whether an electronic form of its logistics management information systems (LMIS) will be a worthwhile investment, and how the specific needs of the EPI are crucial when looking at a potential electronic supply chain software application. [2017]
• See also:
  * Vaccine Hesitancy around the Globe: Analysis of Three Years of WHO/UNICEF Joint Reporting Form Data – 2015-2017
  * Home-Based Records for Poor Mothers and Children in Afghanistan, A Cross Sectional Population Based Study

• 13. Interpersonal Communication for Immunization (IPC/I)
  The website ipc.unicef.org is part of a global package of tools and resources designed to support frontline workers (FLWs) in their immunisation work, with a focus on improving their capacity to effectively use interpersonal communication (IPC) to address barriers to immunisation uptake and completion. Developed through a human-centred design approach, it presents a collection of IPC for immunisation (IPC/I) tools and materials, including the core package, adaptations, and case studies. [Jul 2019]
• 14. Demand for Immunization: A Human-Centered Field Guide for Investigating and Responding to Challenges
  Developed by UNICEF, this platform draws on insights from human behaviour and employs human-centred methodologies to improve immunisation outcomes. It includes a field guide, process map, and workbook providing principles and a structured process to support more equitable immunisation outcomes.
• 15. Communication for Immunization
  Offered on Agora, UNICEF’s global hub for learning and development, this learning programme covers the effective use of communication in immunisation programmes.