Regional Vaccine Implementation Plan 2022–2026, WHO South-East Asia Region
Overview
The World Health Assembly in 2020 endorsed the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) that sets out a global immunization strategy for up to 2030. The WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in 2021 endorsed the “Strategic Framework for South-East Asia Regional Vaccine Action Plan 2022–2030” (Regional Strategic Framework). The plan was developed collaboratively with countries and immunization stakeholders; it adapts the global IA 2030 strategy according to regional context and lays out the specific impact goals of the Region. This Regional Vaccine Implementation Plan (RVIP) 2022–2026 complements these documents, providing details on how the Regional Strategic Framework will be implemented within countries and at the regional level.
Primary responsibility for implementation lies with individual countries. Using the RVIP framework, countries can identify where their national immunization programmes need to be strengthened in order to achieve regional goals and targets. For key indicators, countries will establish their own targets – challenging but achievable – which will act as steppingstones to the regional “gold standard” targets.
Partners will work with countries to identify development needs and collaborate and coordinate their activities in order to deliver tailored packages of support that meet individual country needs. Technical support will draw upon globally collated resources plus regional expertise and peer support among countries.
National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) will offer technical advice to national immunization programmes. They will also provide an oversight mechanism for monitoring progress towards targets. At the regional level, the South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (SEAR ITAG) will provide an overarching oversight mechanism and offer countries individualized advice and support.
Implementation in countries will be based on national health policies, national immunization strategies and comprehensive multi-year plans (cMYPs), which will be updated over time to reflect the IA2030 Strategic Priorities. Annual workplans will be developed outlining the specific activities that need to be undertaken to achieve national targets and identifying who has responsibility for ensuring that they are carried out.
Annual reports will summarize activities undertaken and progress towards national targets. Annual reports will identify areas requiring further attention, creating continuous quality improvement cycles that drive ever-improving programme performance.
Annual workplans and annual reports will be put together by national immunization programmes in collaboration with partners. Annual workplans will include the specific contributions to be made by countries and partners. Annual reports will guide the development of tailored packages of support focused on priority areas. NITAGs will also feed into the development of annual workplans and comment on annual reports. Similarly, SEAR ITAG will review annual workplans and reports, and offer advice to enhance performance.
The monitoring and evaluation framework of the Region will underpin these continuous quality improvement cycles. The framework will include regional versions of global impact goals as well as indicators corresponding to global Strategic Priority Objectives (SPOs). A further set of indicators is being established covering regional priority key areas of focus. Scorecards/dashboards will be developed to provide a visual representation of the progress towards both regional “gold standard” and national targets.
For large countries and those with devolved health systems, similar mechanisms will be established at the subnational level. These will include subnational target-setting within the context of national planning, with inputs from subnational-level technical experts and partners. The principle of continuous quality improvement, underpinned by data collection and analysis, will be promoted at all levels of national immunization programmes.
The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, together with partners, will develop analogous regional annual workplans and annual reports, providing an overview of the performance of all countries of the Region as well as a summary of the activities undertaken at the regional level. These processes will also be undertaken in collaboration with partners to ensure continuing coordination and alignment.
The first RVIP will run until 2026. Initially, activities will have a strong focus on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccination and recovery following the damage caused to immunization services and vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) surveillance by the COVID-19 pandemic. A more comprehensive mid-term review will be carried out in 2026 and will be used for the development of a revised RVIP for 2027–2030.
The Regional Strategic Framework and the Regional Vaccine Implementation Plan (RVIP) 2022–2026 provide a seamless transition from the Regional Vaccine Action Plan (RVAP) 2016–2020. They build on the effective models of collaboration and oversight established under RVAP, but with a stronger emphasis on creating continuous quality improvement cycles that strengthen national immunization programme performance and provide the essential foundation for achieving regional disease elimination and control goals.
