In February 2024 Gavi announced that the Zero-Dose Immunisation Programme (ZIP), funded by Gavi and led by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), has administered one million doses of life-saving vaccines to children in the Horn of Africa. “Zero-dose” children in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan, are the targets of ZIP, which is “responding to the humanitarian challenge” of “identifying and vaccinating zero-dose children living in fragile settings that are beyond the reach of government health services”. Gavi reports that “more than half” of the 2.71 million children in the region aged under five years have “never received a vaccine in their lives”.
A region in crisis
The Horn of Africa is “grappling with multiple crises”, from conflict to displacement and food and water shortages.
“Climate change, extreme droughts, and flooding are also exacerbating instability, making it increasingly difficult to access communities in need of basic health services, and to prevent and control the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
More than 4.5 million zero-dose children were living in the 11 target countries for ZIP in 2021.
Critical partnerships
The IRC is working with Flowminder, ThinkPlace, and a “broad coalition” of local civil society organisations to build on its humanitarian expertise and “successfully deliver results through ZIP”. Humanitarian negotiators are collaborating with vaccination teams to ensure access to communities living in “conflict-ridden areas”, vaccinating the children who are “hardest to reach”.
“At the beginning of the programme only 16% of the total targeted areas in the region were accessible. Through successful negotiation, 77% can now be accessed to deliver immunisation.”
The partners are also “integrating health programmes” to centralise delivery of services like nutrition and vaccines. Shiferaw Demissie, Project Director for Gavi REACH at the IRC, believes that the consortium is “bridging the equity gap in immunisation”.
“The IRC is committed not only to expanding immunisation coverage to some of the most vulnerable populations, but also to utilising Gavi REACH as a gateway to extend additional critical services, such as primary health care, nutrition, and other services, to these communities.”
A fighting chance of a better future
Thabani Maphosa, Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, states that “children living in hard-to-reach communities now have a fighting chance for a better future”.
“But our work is not done: millions of children who are already vulnerable due to conflict, natural disasters, and other challenges continue to be under-served by traditional health systems, and systematically miss out on essential vaccines.”
Mr Maphosa reflected that “innovative partnerships such as this one with the IRC” are “essential” in efforts to “ensure no child is left behind”.
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