Governance of childhood vaccination services in crisis settings
Citation: Abdelmagid N, Southgate RJ, Alhaffar M, et al. The governance of childhood vaccination services in crisis settings: A scoping review. Vaccines. 2023;11(12):1853.
Language: Abstract and full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
What is this? In this scoping review, the authors searched for literature about childhood vaccination programmes in crisis-affected settings. They limited their searches to publications in English and to regions that had an appeal or response plan from the United Nations for at least one year during 2010–2021. The authors searched in May 2022 and found 193 documents from 41 crises.
What was found: Most studies described the mass delivery of polio, cholera, and measles vaccines in response to outbreaks in conflict-affected settings. Inconsistent and fragmented governance strategies for vaccine delivery and ineffective collaboration between governments and humanitarian organisations impaired vaccine delivery, timing, and responses.
Implications: The authors of the review stated that humanitarian organisations should increase transparency by publishing decision-making processes, vaccination interventions, and evaluations. They also recommended greater consensus-building amongst organisations involved in vaccination programmes in crisis settings to ensure a shared strategic vision and equitable governance.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity.
This summary was prepared by Isabelle Tahmazian, checked by Sneha Bhadti, and finalized by William Summerskill.