Innovation for Vaccination Systems
Strengthening Programmatic Performance in Immunization: Service Experience, Data Use and Management
Vaccines save millions of lives each year and are among the most cost-effective health interventions ever developed. Immunization has led to the eradication of smallpox, an 80 percent reduction in childhood deaths from measles over the past decade, and the near-eradication of polio.
Despite these great strides, there remains an urgent need to reach all children with life-saving vaccines. One in five children worldwide is not fully protected with even the most basic vaccines. Tens of thousands of other children suffer from severe or permanently disabling illnesses.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and UNICEF are joining forces by accelerating Innovation for strengthening Vaccination Systems -- starting with better collection and use of critical data.
UNICEF’s Innovation Fund is supporting eight grant recipients of BMGF’s Grand Challenges Explorations Round 22 with its cutting edge piloting and scaling methodologies and tools.
The UNICEF Innovation Fund accelerates the eight projects by linking them with experts in data science, open source innovation, and the UNICEF immunization team, who guide the winners during piloting and testing as subject matter experts and potential users.
To enhance transparency and accountability, all these engagements can be monitored in real-time through the Bounties Network; a blockchain enabled platform that allows for the transparent transfer of tokens between mentors and mentees when sessions take place, and to get updates on the startups’ progress in real-time, making information visible to the public. UNICEF’s Innovation Fund is also helping these companies map out and tackle growth opportunities and partnerships with the key actors in Immunization.
Read more on the BMGF, UNICEF Innovation Fund Sprint Support programme here