Focus on campaign integration at the Second Annual Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition Meeting

Nearly 200 attendees convened on October 19th and 20th for the Second Annual Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition Meeting. The goals of the meeting were to identify promising practices and build consensus around actions to foster learning, collaboration, and systems to effectively plan and implement campaigns to deliver health services to priority populations. More than 50 speakers, moderators, and presenters, including ThinkWell economist Laura Boonstoppel, came together to share their knowledge and experiences in health campaigns around malaria, NTDs, polio, vaccine-preventable diseases, and nutritional supplementation.

Laura was part of the panel for an open discussion on the economic aspects of campaign integration alongside Dr. Alan Hinman of the Task Force for Global Health and Dr. Deborah McFarland of Emory University. This session included in a rich conversation on the implications of integration for health worker incentives and motivation, as campaign incentives may account for a significant proportion of a health worker’s income in settings where there are regular campaigns. The discussion also covered how benefits and costs for households and beneficiaries are included in economic analyses, as the cumulative costs of travel and time required to be taken off work could be reduced through the use of integrated campaigns.

Christina Banks and Flavia Moi presented a poster on findings from ThinkWell’s costing studies on immunization campaigns in Nigeria and Sierra Leone which showed the potential financial efficiencies of campaign integration and the effect of volume delivered on cost per dose. This presentation prompted interesting discussions on how the cost of campaigns with multiple antigens or integrated nutritional interventions compared to single antigen or vaccine only delivery, and the different staffing requirements of both.