Increasing Access to Key Missing Vaccines
The Gavi Middle-Income Countries (MICs) Approach aims to address the barriers to new vaccine introduction in support of the Gavi 5.0 strategy to achieve greater sustainability, equity, and resilience in immunisation globally. The MICs Approach contributes to Gavi’s overall vision of leaving no one behind with immunisation.
While many of the Gavi transitioned countries have sustained immunisation performance, some MICs have yet to introduce all essential vaccines, namely PCV, HPV, and rotavirus vaccine, into their routine immunisation schedules. Within these countries, sizeable inequities due to geographic, socioeconomic, and gender disparities, as well as conflict, still exist. Even still, introduction of these essential vaccines among many MICs that have never been eligible for Gavi support is lagging behind those of Gavi-eligible countries.
Former-Gavi and never-Gavi MICs account for 22 percent of the total zero-dose children. Missed communities, or communities with large numbers of zero-dose children – such as urban slums, remote rural settings, and conflict zones – are more likely to have disease outbreaks. The MICs Approach seeks to promote equitable access to PCV, rotavirus, and HPV vaccines across and within countries.
Linked facilitates cross-country learning among MICs about new vaccine introduction (NVI) experience, focused on vaccine-specific topics in addition to a range of topics such as evidence for decision making, planning, training, budgeting, communications, vaccine safety, monitoring and evaluation, etc.
Click the buttons below to access network and partner resources and news related to increasing access to key missing vaccines and overcoming barriers to achieving high vaccine coverage. Past learning exchanges explored factors and decision-making processes for NVI, and country experiences and lessons introducing new vaccines.
Other Focus Areas
Whilst most countries maintain programme performance following the transition from Gavi support, some have gaps in programmatic capacities which can create a risk of backsliding in vaccine coverage. This risk has increasingly become a reality in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting a significant threat to intra-country equity, as backsliding disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable populations. Explore our resources that highlight good strategies and promising practices to prevent and mitigate backsliding.
Gavi’s vision for a successful transition is one in which countries have expanded their national immunisation programmes with vaccines of public health importance and sustain these vaccines post-transition with high and equitable coverage of target populations, while having robust systems and decision-making processes in place to support the introduction of future vaccines. Explore our resources that highlight good strategies and promising practices for tackling challenges for transitioning countries.