Save the Children International and GSK launches a news initiative to boost child vaccination rates in Nigeria.
By Aminu Dalhatu
Ahead of World Immunization Week, Save the Children and GSK have launched a new $1 million initiative to empower local organisations in Nigeria and Ethiopia to tackle the long standing barriers which prevent children from receiving vaccinations.
In a statement by the Save the Children International says save the Children and GSK Immunisation Accelerator is open for applications from community-based organisations, national NGOs, local research teams, social enterprises and tech companies.
“The most promising approaches will get the opportunity to increase their impact through financial and technical support and pilot their innovations in a live setting”
According to the statement, the continent of Africa has the highest number of zero dose children.
“Those who have never received a routine vaccination – in the world: 8.7 million children1. More than a third of these children live in Nigeria and Ethiopia, where the combined impacts of the pandemic, poverty, climate change, instability and conflict are disrupting vaccination campaigns”
It explains that, in Last year, Save the Children and GSK renewed their decade long partnership for a further five years, with an investment of £15 million from GSK to enable the two new vaccination programmes in Ethiopia and Nigeria focused on reducing the number of zero dose children.
The Statement maintains that, the innovators applying to the Accelerator can address any type of barrier to the access and utilisation of vaccines on both the supply and demand side, such as improving community engagement, streamlining logistics to increase the availability and accessibility of vaccines and strengthening data management to track vaccine coverage rates.
According to the statement, the Country Director of Save the Children International Nigeria, Duncan Harvey stated that Save the Children has been deeply committed to implementing immunization related projects and interventions across Nigeria in response to the high rate of zero-dose and unimmunized children in the country.
It says Save the Children and GSK Immunisation Accelerator was born out of an understanding of the urgent necessity for locally led innovation to achieve their vision of a world where no child suffers from a vaccine-preventable disease.
While Dr Thomas Breuer, Chief Global Health Officer, GSK said they are excited to see applications open for the Immunisation Accelerator.
Revealing that, their partnership with Save the Children is guided by local communities, experts and stakeholders, seeking out the local knowledge and capabilities in Ethiopia and Nigeria is fundamental in finding unique innovations that could help address the critical need for improvements to vaccination rates amongst children.
“We eagerly anticipate the fresh ideas that the Accelerator will bring, and we’re ready at GSK to support these innovations come to fruition, to help change the trajectory for children in Nigeria, Ethiopia and beyond.”
