Transformative Investment: Strategies to Reach - Invest in tailored strategies that identify undervaccinated and unvaccinated persons and regularly provide them with the vaccines they need

In 2017, about 27% (56/216) districts in Ghana, using DPT3 as a proxy, achieved administrative coverage less than 90% though national achieved coverage of 102% (EPI Ghana, 2018). This implies that portion of the target population was undervaccinated and unvaccinated and these gaps, if not addressed, may negatively impact on the gains made in immunization. Several reasons, ranging from social, cultural, quality of health services, attitude and practices of health worker, among many others might contribute to the unvaccinated and undervaccinated. It is, therefore, appropriate to identify strategies and activities that will be geared towards reaching these undervaccinated and unvaccinated persons and regularly provide them with vaccines that they need to help achieve the immunization coverage target

Next steps: Summarize how you intend to take your action plan forward once the course is over. What actions will you carry out to have your action plan reviewed, validated, adopted, and supported to be taken forward?

The plan will be shared with the District Health Management Team (DHMT) at Assin Foso Municipality in one of its usual meetings. In this stakeholder engagement, inputs will be solicited which will aid in the review and validation of the action plan. After this stage, the plan will be piloted in one of the sub-districts under the district. The outcome of the pilot will be disseminated with the stakeholders and further adopted so that it can be scaled up in the entire district.

Linkages

In my district, the planning of immunization is organized at the health facility, sub-district and district level. The health facility with their stakeholders do their plan with respect to their catchment area whilst the sub-district organized their plan which captures all the health facilities under the sub-district. The district level also does a composite plan that factor both the sub-district and facility ones with an aspect of monitoring and evaluation. The project will be shared in one of the district immunization review meetings which are usually attended by district unit heads, sub-district in-charges as well as community health officers. Successful implementation at the district level will aid in sharing the idea to the regional level where other districts in the central region will adopt it.

Stakeholders

To turn my plan into action, I will need to engage with the DHMT, Regional and National EPI Coordinator, Sub-district heads, Community Health officers, Community health nurses, members of the community health committees as well as my fellow Scholars

Change is at the essence of quality improvement but not all people welcome change at the initial stage and this might influence the commitment of some stakeholders.

With some form of mentorship, guidance, coaching, motivation and support from my organization, supervisors and partners, the full support and commitment will be gained

Contributions and comments from other Scholars during the training period were so exceptional and cannot be relegated to the background. Support from my country Scholar group as well as other Scholars will be sought to make my action plan implementation a success

Budget and Timeline

Budget: As the plan will be implemented on the existing structures, an amount of US$1700 will be needed as support to implement the project

Timeline: With respect to the activities entail in the action plan, the project can be implemented within a period of 18months, starting from July, 2019.