Data.FI South Africa

A total of 27 survey responses were received from 11 projects and 9 countries, with 11 participants supporting multiple countries. The countries represented include Botswana, Uganda, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, and Pakistan. The survey asked participants to rate the importance of various challenges on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being not important and 5 being very important. The results showed that the top challenges in October were health care worker capacity and fatigue, insufficient operational costs, vaccine confidence and low demand, regulatory authorization, cold chain and storage requirements, and lack of vaccines and uncertainty around future vaccine supplies. The average importance ratings for these challenges were 4.2, 3.8, 4.0, 2.7, 3.5, and 3.7, respectively. In September, the importance ratings for these challenges were similar, with health care worker capacity and fatigue, insufficient operational costs, vaccine confidence and low demand, regulatory authorization, cold chain and storage requirements, and lack of vaccines and uncertainty around future vaccine supplies receiving average importance ratings of 4.3, 4.1, 3.9, 2.9, 3.7, and 3.8, respectively. To address these challenges, participants reported exploring various strategies, including demand creation and community mobilization, using AI for faster and more responsive social media campaigns, training and using healthcare workers and HW professional associations to become trusted sources of information, microplanning at the subnational level, human resources hired to support vaccinations, remote vaccination efforts, and private sector engagement in vaccine administration. Other strategies included strengthening regulatory processes and surveillance, intergovernmental coordination, supply chain strengthening, and training community leaders and health workers. The survey also highlighted the need for addressing rumors and misinformation, community outreach, rural community outreach and vaccination efforts, planning, microplanning, and data use, engaging private sector, support for policy making and regulatory processes, coordination between ministries, and strengthening supply chain management. The top challenges identified by participants included regulatory authorization, lack of vaccines and uncertainty around future vaccine supplies, cold chain and storage requirements, vaccine confidence and low demand, insufficient operational costs, and health worker capacity and fatigue.