Resource Round-up: Strengthening Immunisation Service Delivery through Primary Health Care Platforms

This resource round-up is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian.

Integrating primary health care (PHC) delivery programmes and immunisation services is essential to achieving strong and equitable immunisation systems. Yet, many middle-income countries experience critical challenges pertaining to coordination and integration of immunisation services within PHC that represent a risk to sustaining high and equitable routine vaccination coverage. Also, the integration of COVID-19 into the national immunisation schedule and PHC presents a unique challenge for countries.

Below are a few of the top resources that country stakeholders can use to address these critical challenges as they aim to strengthen service delivery to maintain, increase, or restore immunisation coverage levels, and bolster high, equitable, and sustainable coverage of COVID-19 vaccines.

Linked Workshop: Strengthening the Delivery of Immunisation Services through PHC Platforms
The Linked Immunisation Action Network held an in-person workshop to bring together country immunisation stakeholders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Mongolia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, as well as global experts, to share experiences, mitigating strategies, and good practices to address the challenges these countries are facing with the delivery of immunisation services through primary health care (PHC) platforms, with the objective of strengthening service delivery to maintain, increase, or restore coverage levels. Explore good practices and approaches to address a range of service delivery challenges that represent a risk to sustaining and increasing routine vaccination coverage in our workshop materials, which are available in English and Russian.

Linked Brief: Strengthening Immunisation Service Delivery through Primary Health Care Platforms: Key Takeaways from the Linked Europe-Central Asia Workshop
To complement the materials from the workshop described above, “Strengthening Immunisation Service Delivery through PHC Platforms“, Linked developed a brief summarizing highlights and takeaways from the discussion. The brief outlines the benefits and risks of integration, plus strategies to address critical challenges.

Webinar: Key Considerations for Integrating Immunisation with Other PHC Services
The Learning Network for Countries in Transition hosted a webinar that provided a framework for countries considering integrating immunisation with other PHC services, including what factors should be considered during the decision-making process and outlining the program components that need to be taken into consideration during planning. Participants also heard from two countries – Lao PDR and Nigeria – on key challenges and lessons learned from their integration experiences. View the webinar materials to gain insights into the financial and programmatic factors that should be taken into account during the decision-making and design processes.

Considerations for Integrating COVID-19 Vaccination into Immunisation Programmes and Primary Health Care for 2022 and Beyond
WHO and UNICEF developed this guidance, which lays out key programmatic considerations – including risks and benefits – of moving from conducting mass COVID-19 vaccination campaigns to integrating COVID-19 vaccination into immunisation programmes, primary health care (PHC), and other relevant health services for 2022 and beyond. Immunisation stakeholders can use this guidance to understand the risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination integration and to identify approaches for integrated service delivery.

Country Experiences with COVID-19 Vaccination: Mainstreaming & Integration with Immunisation Programme Services and PHC
This reference guide and presentation from WHO contains country examples of good practices and innovation to mainstream and integrate Covid-19 vaccination into critical areas of immunisation services and PHC, such as supply chain, community engagement, and human resource management, among others. Stakeholders charged with integrating and scaling up Covid-19 vaccinations into routine immunisation programmes can use these country experiences to identify potential solutions to address challenges and bottlenecks to scaling up Covid-19 vaccinations.

Landscape Report on the Economics of Integration of Immunisation And Primary Health Care Services In Low-And Middle-Income Countries
Cost savings are seen as a major reason to integrate programs; however, no previous reviews found evidence addressing the costs and cost effectiveness of integration of immunisation and primary health care services. A review by the EPIC team at Harvard, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed to fill this evidence gap by describing the available research on the costs and cost-effectiveness of integrating immunisation with primary health care (PHC) services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Integrating Vertical Programs into Primary Health Care: A Decision-Making Approach for Policymakers
This report and accompanying case studies offer practical guidance for policymakers who need to make decisions about whether and how to more fully integrate specific vertical programs into their country’s broader health system, with a focus on PHC. It discusses what the evidence shows about the successes and failures of such efforts, considerations for policymakers when making decisions about integration, and ways to balance potential gains and losses.

IA2030: Primary Health Care and Universal Health Coverage
Integration of primary health care and immunisation services has the potential to contribute to improved and sustained universal health coverage (UHC), and improve prospects for achieving health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This IA2030 strategy document, focused on the strategic priority, Immunisation Programmes for PHC/ UHC, lays out key areas of focus for PHC integration, key evidence, and strategic interventions and opportunities for operationalization.