By El-ameen Ibrahim
Save the Children, says the pandemic, poverty, instability, violence, and climate change have all made it difficult to immunize one-third of children from Ethiopia and Nigeria alone. This is even as the SCI said that at 8.7 million, Africa is home to the greatest number of “zero dose” children globally.
This was disclosed by the acting Media and Communications Manager in Nigeria, Rhoda Ndahi, in a statement on Tuesday, after the unveiling and groundbreaking of $1 million initiative aimed at empowering local organizations in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Ndahi further said that Save the Children and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have emphasized the importance of this program in addressing vaccine hesitancy and safeguarding the health of Nigerian children ahead of World Immunization Day.
She stated “Africa harbors the highest number of ‘zero dose’ children globally, totaling 8.7 million. Nigeria and Ethiopia alone account for over a third of these children. Factors such as the pandemic, poverty, climate change, instability, and conflict have disrupted vaccination efforts in these regions.
“Last year, Save the Children and GSK renewed their decade-long partnership with a £15 million investment from GSK, focusing on launching two new vaccination programs in Ethiopia and Nigeria to reduce the number of zero-dose children.
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“Innovators participating in the Accelerator program will address barriers to vaccine access and utilization, including community engagement, logistics optimization, and data management to track vaccine coverage rates,” she said.
The media officer further said that “Save the Children and GSK Immunisation Accelerator, program is now open for applications from community-based organizations, national NGOs, local research teams, social enterprises, and tech companies, an initiative that seeks to expedite innovative solutions to longstanding barriers hindering children from receiving vital vaccinations, granting of up to $100,000 per project that are available, accompanied by support services ranging from technical guidance to legal advice and branding assistance.”
Ndahi added that successful applicants will receive financial and technical support to pilot their innovative solutions, with the ultimate goal of increasing vaccination coverage.
Country Director of Save the Children International Nigeria, Duncan Harvey, emphasized the urgency of locally-led innovation to combat vaccine-preventable diseases, particularly in Nigerian communities.
Dr. Thomas Breuer, Chief Global Health Officer at GSK, expressed excitement about the Accelerator program and emphasized the importance of leveraging local knowledge and capabilities to improve vaccination rates among children in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
“Projects considered for funding must be at the testing stage of the innovation cycle and demonstrate evidence of addressing priority immunization barriers. Each proposal will undergo rigorous evaluation against predefined criteria.” He said.
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What effect did Covid-19 Pandemic have on the rates of childhood vaccinations?
Massive disruptions like COVID-19 prevented children from receiving their recommended vaccinations and took resources away from immunization campaigns.
Medical professionals who would typically assist in vaccinating more children were reassigned to concentrate on COVID-19, even while they became ill themselves.
As a result, during the epidemic, there was a dramatic drop in vaccination rates worldwide, there was hard work to achieve an 86% coverage percentage, but by the end of 2021, it had plummeted to 81%.
Although it might not seem like much, that means that 67 million children worldwide did not receive their recommended vaccinations in full or in part between 2019 and 2021.
