Vaccine Procurement Practitioners Exchange Forum (VPPEF)
An annual event to foster knowledge sharing, best practices and strengthen skills and understanding on diverse vaccine procurement topics.
The Vaccine Procurement Practitioners Exchange Forum (VPPEF) is an annual event that represents a unique platform to foster knowledge sharing, best practices and strengthen participants’ skills and understanding on diverse vaccine procurement topics. Since its launch in 2015, it has evolved greatly to become a well-established forum serving all self-procuring countries that is now part of the Immunization Agenda 2030.
Below are some overviews of the most recent meetings. More information is also available on the Vaccine Procurement Practitioners Network, including ongoing e-discussions around these topics.
On June 20–21, 2023, UNICEF Supply Division hosted the annual Vaccine Procurement Practitioners Exchange Forum (VPPEF) in Copenhagen. With 65 participants from 16 countries, the Forum provided a venue for peer-to-peer cooperation among practitioners who had an opportunity to exchange knowledge and lessons learnt and discuss challenges on how to strengthen their procurement processes and ensure timely and sustainable access to affordable supplies.
The discussion on sustainable access to vaccines focused on the introduction of new vaccines and used HPV as a deep dive case study. Participants also shared best practices around utilizing market intelligence to inform their procurement strategies for new vaccine introductions.
The key principles to be considered in a procurement strategy, including access to sustainable financing, were also explored. The participants reviewed the current situation and challenges faced by their own countries and regions in introducing and continuing with new vaccines and examined possible actions to deal with these challenges.
Check the perspectives from participants of the event on Sharing knowledge and building skills
On 19 and 20 October 2022, UNICEF Supply Division and UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO) held the MENA regional VPPEF in Amman, Jordan. The meeting brought together government representatives, and UNICEF staff and partners to discuss vaccine procurement in the region.
The Forum focused on new vaccine introductions, including how to work towards vaccine security and best practices to ensure access to immunization products. The participants also provided their assessment on programmatic implications of new vaccines – with emphasis on HPV, PCV and Rota , shared lessons learned and discussed the barriers on how to overcome challenges like access to sustainable financing.
Moving forward, UNICEF will continue to support the MENA government partners to operationalize key priorities identified during the Forum for 2023 and beyond.
The 2021 global edition of the VPPEF for the first time covered the procurement of medicines – becoming the Vaccine and Medicine Procurement Practitioners Forum (eV-MPPEF) – to provide procurement practitioners the platform and opportunity to discuss procurement from a health product lens.
The eV-MPPEF was held online on 6 and 7 December 2021 and engaged and leveraged collective knowledge from health procurement practitioners around topics related to the procurement of vaccines and medicines during the COVID-19 response, as well as provided an update on the current global immunization status.
The discussion focused on key challenges, including that many immunization activities planned for the second half of 2020 were postponed due to COVID-19. Therefore, the eV-MPPEF also discussed some of the key achievements and mitigating strategies that participants implemented in their respective countries to reinstate these activities during 2021.
The meeting had a significant participation of the global supply community, with 109 participants from governments, UNICEF and partner organizations.
UNICEF Supply Division, in collaboration with the East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO), hosted an online two-day Regional Vaccine Procurement Practitioners Exchange Forum (VPPEF) on the 23 and 24 June 2021. The Forum brought together governments, UNICEF, WHO, and Gavi and other partners to discuss and exchange knowledge and experiences on the COVID-19 vaccine roll out in the region, as well as the continued need to strengthen vaccine procurement planning processes and financing for routine vaccines.
