Health policy and systems research for improving vaccine uptake in low- and middle-income countries

Overview

The agenda on improving vaccine uptake is not new. Yet, persistent and emerging challenges threaten the significant public health gains that vaccination has made over decades. To create opportunities to respond to these challenges, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (the Alliance), with the support of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is undertaking a new programme of health policy and systems research to improve vaccine uptake in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The objectives of this programme are to improve understanding of low vaccine uptake using health policy and systems research methods (multi-level, multi stakeholder), and to support efforts to develop and implement appropriate strategies to address low vaccine uptake. This meeting report summarizes the first activity of this new programme, an expert consultation convened by the Alliance on 16 and 17 April 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. The expert consultation brought together 19 global experts and policy-makers from low-, middle- and high-income countries from diverse domains. They emphasized several key emerging topics: digital transformation; health workforce; data, integrated and practice-based evidence, measurement and learning; community knowledge systems (cultural assets, infrastructures and capacities); emergency settings; and systemic risk linked to the limits of immunization systems.