Country of Focus: India

Transformative Investment: Invest in the shared responsibility for immunization delivery between communities and the immunization programme to reach uniformly high coverage through high demand and quality services.

Focus on 3 Strategies:

1) Better Communication microplan as per the needs/ requirements of the community.

2) Engagement of various other departments like- Panchayati Raj, ICDS and Education deptt.

3) Capacity building of vaccinators and district managers to deal with vaccine hesitancy issues.

(1) ​Out of the 9 TIs, I have selected this TI for the simple reason being the immunization coverage is the responsibility of not only Government to supply vaccines and logistics through its manpower resources, but it is the equal responsibility of people and community as a whole to avail the benefits to its maximum, which can be only achieved through community participation.

(2) These 3 strategies are very important- for Community Participation and better immunization outcomes.

(3) Better communication microplanning- Mosque announcements, Inter-personal communication, IEC, Mother/community meetings; Inter-sectoral coordination and support can help in influencing common people to make better informed decisions without spreading/believing in any rumors/ false media reports; Capacity building of front-line workers/mid-level managers is equally important- to prepare them to handle issues of vaccine hesitancy/ Fear from vaccination issues, etc.

(4) These activities can be monitored during routine House-to-house visits (random survey); sharing feedbacks through regular District/Blocks weekly review meetings or during District Task force meeting; using standardised formats for supervision/monitoring by District/Block level supervisors; Using Pre-test/Post-test questionnaire for health workers for building their capacity.

Such measures can lead to fruitful impact and improve immunization outcomes- If we invest in Community Participation- Making healthworkers believe that they are not alone and even community has strong belief and faith in immunization.