1. Systematic collaboration between Public Health Services and CSOs/NGOs

One first lesson learned from our experience so far is that a logical division of labor between government health services and NGOs has emerged in most OAFRESS countries. While public health services continue to administer the vaccines, OAFRESS advocacy Champions serve as a liaison between these vaccination services and the target group of hard-to-reach rural communities, families and children eligible for vaccinations. In many countries this division of labor has been codified in legally binding working documents between government services and NGOs. In addition, most countries are implementing regular multi-stakeholder working meetings to prepare outreach to hard-to-reach audiences and to monitor results and to experiment with optimal outreach strategies, using innovative stakeholder analysis and engagement strategies. Examples of these collaborative relationships were presented by a group of Champions during the OAFRESS ConneXion Conference in July 2022 in Niamey, Niger. Furthermore, on the occasion of the last week of April 2024 (International Vaccination Week) Champions from Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire organized a very well attended  international Zoom meeting (82 participants mostly from West Africa) to present their detailed case studies of collaboration between the public health service and local NGOs in their respective countries.

2. Champions are Making Public Health Services Accountable to Local Communities

The Champions, by being generally close to remote populations, are particularly well-placed to understand the social dynamics of communities and to strengthen good governance and transparency of public services for immunizing children. As a result, they are able to remove often encountered obstacles to vaccination.

2.1. Champions help to overcome a lack of clear information.

The Champions are generally working in their regions of origin. Hence they know the local context, the local language and culture and the community leaders, and are accepted as being “from here”. For that reason, they are often much better able to overcome societal obstacles, than a “stranger” – even someone from the same country – would be able to do.

2.2 Champions help to overcome vaccine resistance.

They are informed about the process of vaccination, and receive first-hand information from the public health service. Thus they are able to subtly convince the local community of the need, the date, the place and the location of the target group to get children vaccinated, and usually to overwin the vaccine resistance and reject fables about the dangers of vaccines that are circulating in the community.

2.3. Champions help to find solutions by bringing all partners together

Most importantly, in collaboration with all the different stakeholder groups, they are able to find solutions to identified shortcomings and to ensure that the target groups have “a voice” in the process, thus involving them in the smooth running of the vaccination process, thereby minimizing mismanagement and waste and ascertaining the health service’s accountability to the target population.

2.4. Advocates for allocating monetary resources for vaccination in the national budget 

This year we witnessed an interesting phenomenon of South-South learning across the OAFRESS network, when Champions from various other OAFRESS countries, who received special training on the subject, conducted successful tours to advocate for setting aside additional financial resources for vaccination in their respective countries. Thus, thanks to the relentless dedication of the Champions and their initiatives across the entire network, the vaccination budgets in OAFRESS countries may be significantly increased.