Immunization value, costing, financing, and efficiency

Featured

RFP: Health and economic impact of vaccination in Sudan

UNICEF is supporting the government of Sudan to sustain immunization achievements post-Gavi transition through the generation of evidence on the health and economic impact of Immunization in Sudan. Read more here

Costing study updates from India, Indonesia, Tanzania, and Vietnam

Immunization Costing Action Network (ICAN) describes country research status and important lessons learned in data collection processes and stakeholder engagement. Read more here

Recent capacity building workshops in Pakistan & South Africa

TVEE successfully organized workshops focusing on applied vaccine economics, cost-effectiveness, and finance in Karachi, Pakistan and Johannesburg, South Africa for the month of April 2018. Read more here

New and resurgent infectious diseases: economic repercussions

A new article explores issues of infectious diseases, threats of disruption caused by outbreaks and epidemics, and potential risk management steps including new and improved vaccines. Read more here

Vaccine Delivery Digest

Latest digests of the START center at the University of Washington featured several immunization costing studies. [May issue], [June issue]

Application open: African Advanced Vaccinology Course

Held in South Africa on September 3-12, this course is part of a broader training module of the ALIVE initiative. Application deadline is June 30, read more here.

Call for financial protection training-of-trainers workshop

The WHO is looking to develop a pool of experts that can be more readily called upon to help respond to country needs for technical support on monitoring financial protection, and to also support WHO’s analytical work on monitoring financial protection. Read more here.

TVEE to hold Economic Evaluation Workshop in India

TVEE in collaboration with IIHMR will be organizing a two day workshop on Economic Evaluation in Immunization to be held from June 21-22, 2018 in New Delhi, India. Read more here.

Broad socioeconomic benefits of vaccination

Evaluating vaccination programs according to their broad socioeconomic benefits, beyond their health benefits, will help to address the twin problems of vaccine underutilization and weak incentives for vaccine innovation. See more here

Now Available: Delivery Cost Catalogue

ThinkWell’s Immunization Costing Action Network (ICAN) launches the most comprehensive, current, and standardized global evidence on the cost of vaccine delivery on the Immunization Economics platform. Read more here

Immunization as a poverty reduction tool

New modeling study shows that immunization improves economic well-being of a country, prevents disease-related hospitalization and associated impoverishment, and provides significant financial protection to households, particularly the poorest. Read more here.

UNICEF seeks health economic consultants

UNICEF is searching for health economic consultants with interest in immunization to join a newly formed roster system. Consultants in the roster can be recruited on short notice on flexible terms. All levels of experience are welcome. Apply by 20th May 2018 via this link

Testing Benefit-Cost Analysis Methods

The benefit-cost analysis guidance project team is seeking case studies that examine the application of the methodological recommendations, focusing on immunization and other policies. Read more here

Immunization Financing in MENA MICs

New UNICEF report examines immunization financing and vaccine procurement in 14 middle-income countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Read more here

TVEE Releases Open Source Health Economics Courses

Three modules were published from TVEE's vaccine economics curriculum, available to the public for free, on the JHSPH OpenCourseWare (OCW). Anybody can now download lecture slides, syllabi and exercises from this curriculum. Read more here

Reducing statistical uncertainty in costing studies

Analyses estimating program costs collected on a subsample of facilities are subject to statistical uncertainty, often quantified via standard errors and/or 95% confidence intervals. This recent publication elaborates methods to reduce statistical uncertainty.

Engaging Local Stakeholders in Economic Evaluation

Local engagement and empowerment have been essential for the DOVE study to develop cost of illness estimates and apply them to policymaking and program planning in Uganda. Here are some ideas and tools you can use...

The BactiVac Network Catalyst Funding

Catalyst funding is available to support scientists in bacterial vaccinology to explore new approaches and strategies to advance their vaccines in partnership with LMICs and across the academia/industry divide. Read more here.

Costing essential services package in Bangladesh

Recent study estimate cost drivers and unit costs of Immunization and other essential services package in Bangladesh. Supplemented with epidemiological and demographical data, this information could be used to help with policy and decision making. Read more here

Sustainability of Benin’s Immunization Financing [Fr]

Benin’s commitment to immunization continues to grow, though sustainability of financing remains a concern. Comparisons with neighboring countries reveal potential lessons for Benin, around efficiency and sustainability. [Eng], [Fr]

WHO Advanced Course on Health Financing

Fifth Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for LMIC, to be held from 18 to 22 June 2018 in Tunis, Tunisia. Apply by Thursday 1 March 2018 at midnight (Geneva, Switzerland time). Read more here

Vaccines' equity impact on deaths and impoverishment

A new analysis of health and household economic impact of 10 vaccine antigens across income quintiles for 41 low- and middle-income countries indicates predominant benefit in lowest quintiles, improving health equity. Read more here.

Transitioning financial responsibility from donors to countries

A new publication explains main challenges that countries and donors face in achieving smooth transitions, points to the key strategies and tools that should be used and outlines a recommended agenda for priority research in this area. Read more here.

Sustainability of Benin’s Immunization Financing

RFP: Effective Engagement with the Private sector

Help ministries of health and UNICEF partners engage effectively with the private providers/sectors to expand immunization coverage and reduce inequities. Proposal deadline Feb 19, (11am Amman time). Read more here.

TVEE Launches Workshops in India, Pakistan & Uganda

The workshops series in Jaipur, Karachi, and Kampala focuses on capacity building in applied vaccine economics and financing. Read more here

Insights from community survey results

This short report revealed community members' demographics, location and area of work, the projects they work on, the identified public resource, and current needs in methodological guide.

Dr. Logan Brenzel welcomes members of the community

In the October 2017 Newsletter Issue, Dr. Brenzel thanks and welcomes the members of the Immunization Economics Community of Practice. Read her welcome letter here.

The Full Course Argument For Investing In Vaccines

Dr Orin Levine: "Virtually every child in the world can access a Coca-Cola, yet globally, one in every seven children is still excluded from vaccines. In Africa, one in five go unvaccinated." Read more here

TVEE Launches Workshops in South Africa & Uganda

TVEE launched the first workshops of the series in Johannesburg, South Africa and Kampala, Uganda. The workshop series focuses on capacity building in applied vaccine economics, cost-effectiveness and finance. Read more here.

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Background

About ImmunizationEconomics.org

ImmunizationEconomics.org is a resource for organizations and individuals involved in the field of immunization economics. The site was originally created in 2015 as part of the EPIC project with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and has key collaborators from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, ThinkWell, and Results for Development.

ImmunizationEconomics.org has three central aims:

To create a global community of practice consisting of experts in the field of immunization economics and policymakers interested in evidence-based immunization policy.
To keep the community of practice up to date with the latest developments in research on immunization value, costing, financing, and efficiency via our web platform and newsletters.
To encourage collaboration on projects that generate rigorous new evidence in immunization economics, and on projects to identify best practices in associated research methodologies and policy implementation.

Visitors to ImmunizationEconomics.org can submit new information related to immunization economics. We will review submissions to assess their appropriateness for dissemination through the website and newsletter.

The community of practice is open to all who are interested in receiving the ImmunizationEconomics.org newsletter. Organizations interested in contributing to the website or newsletter should contact us here. Together, we can achieve our common goal of furthering the field of immunization economics research and informing policies for improved implementation of immunization programs.

Read Dr. Logan Brenzel's welcome letter to the comunity

CLICK on the icons below to Learn more about the projects that jointly create this web partnership

Community of practice

We are a community of practice comprised of researchers, Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) managers, public-health practitioners, and other stakeholders. We are interested in the collection and analysis of data and the dissemination and application of evidence regarding the value, costing, financing, and efficiency of immunization programs.

A broad community of practice facilitates the exchange of information and enables new approaches to collecting economic information and using it to improve vaccine delivery. To date, our community has more than 800 members from more than 140 organizations involved in immunization programs across the globe.

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above: Selected Immunization Economics Community of Practice members' institution logo. Logo release form for participating CoP members can be found here