JSI, in collaboration with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is assisting DRC's Ministry of Health/Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to develop and test strategies to help the immunization program to more effectively reach marginalized urban communities, with the ultimate goal of improving and maintaining high coverage rates among these communities.
In the project's initial phase, JSI is collaborating with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and in-country stakeholders to develop a diagnostic methodology that will highlight barriers to immunization access and utilization faced by the urban poor. The findings from this diagnostic will be used to inform a 12-month technical workplan of recommended urban immunization strategies, which will be pilot-tested in select urban poor districts in Kinshasa.
Results from this pilot will be evaluated and documented in order to provide additional evidence and insight into urban immunization that can be used for scale-up planning, as well as to inform regional and global dialogue and decisions around programming to address urban poor immunization inequities.
For more on JSI's work in urban immunization, please learn about our Gavi-funded projects in Indonesia, Ghana, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan.
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