According to the World Health organization, immunization programs globally have saved the lives of more than thirty million children in the last 15 years. With this critical impact of immunization to health, the WHO declared the period of 2011-2020 the “Decade of vaccines” this was backed with a vision to accelerate the public health impact of global vaccination by 2020.
Community Health and Research Initiative in Nigeria (CHRI) is the leading partner pushing PACFaH interventions to encourage government funding in routine immunization. Following Nigeria’s gradual exit as a beneficiary of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) funding,local supply of vaccine will depend largely on government commitment to close funding gaps and prevent many deaths to vaccine preventable diseases.
PACFaH enabled civil society organizations and the media to form issue based partnerships to push routine immunization at the National level and the three (3) PACFaH focal states. The project also strengthened routine immunization accountability mechanisms in its focal states by working with state governments to establish routine immunization working groups where absent, and successfully incorporated indigenous CSOs and media in the routine immunization accountability working groups to ensure transparency and accountability in the states.
Successful achievement by PACFaH include creation of dedicated budget lines for routine immunization in Kaduna, Kano and Bauchi states. Advocacy visits and follow up visit were conducted to key targets and ministries at National and state, with 80 million (approximately 50% of funds earmarked in the MOU) released for routine immunization in Bauchi, and 50 million (20% of funds earmarked in the MOU) released in Kano state and 180million (100% of funds earmarked in the MOU) released in Kaduna state following advocacy interventions.
PACFaH ensures sustainability of interventions through advocacy and media sensitization of the importance of adequate immunization funding with the resultant return of the amount budgeted for routine immunization in the national budget
