Making Vaccine Technologies Work for the Poor

This policy briefing examines the utilisation of vaccine technologies in promoting child health and reducing disease burdens that affect economically poor people. The report focuses on Africa, where routine immunisation rates are stagnant or in decline.

The briefing states that in order to improve immunisation rates and encourage health promotion, policymakers and practitioners must pay close attention to local cultural understandings of vaccines, focusing on the interacting social, cultural and political dynamics of vaccination demand and supply. The report goes on to say that “[a]ttention to the socio-cultural dimensions of vaccine demand could, for instance, inform more appropriate policy approaches to education and communication,” which could develop more dialogue-based approaches that work with the local cultural ways in which people think about vaccination.

The briefing concludes that if vaccination technologies are genuinely to work for economically poor communities, there needs to be an appreciation and understanding of the diversity of ways that parents consider and reflect on vaccines, and that better integration of campaign and routine activities and greater public dialogue about their interrelationship is crucial to effective vaccine delivery.