Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance launches a ‘call to innovate’, inviting organisations to bring forward new ways to address specific barriers to vaccine delivery.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance launches a ‘call to innovate’, inviting organisations to bring forward new ways to address specific barriers to vaccine delivery.
Health efficiency to mitigate climate impact
Health efficiency to mitigate climate impact
Gavi is proud to announce that INFUSE 2024 is actively seeking innovative solutions uniquely positioned to enhance health systems, enabling them to effectively manage resilient and climate-adaptive responses to climate threats.
The climate crisis stands as the foremost threat to human health. Climate change exacerbates existing health challenges and introduces new ones, including increased vulnerability to diseases sensitive to climate conditions – such as malaria – and the likelihood of more frequent and severe disease outbreaks due to extreme weather. Immunisation has been identified as a critical adaptation strategy to reduce vulnerability to climate change.
Gavi is leveraging its portfolio of vaccines, including some against deadly climate-sensitive diseases such as malaria, typhoid, yellow fever and cholera, as well as its portfolio of scaling innovations in last-mile delivery, data and demand generation. To further expand this toolbox, INFUSE is actively seeking groundbreaking solutions uniquely positioned to modernise health systems.
INFUSE 2024 will surface innovations that aim to develop low-carbon and sustainable health care systems – enhancing the skills of the health care workforce to navigate immunisation challenges, and to anticipate and respond to disruptions.
Accelerating immunisation coverage for rapid urbanisation challenge
Accelerating immunisation coverage for rapid urbanisation challenge
In 2019, INFUSE looked for innovations uniquely positioned to address immunisation challenges in urban settings. Through this call, Gavi sought innovations that aim to address the specific challenges involved in assuring that children living in urban areas are reached with immunisation. In 2018, 55% of the world’s population lived in urban settings. By 2050, this figure is expected to rise to almost 70%. This rapid growth will add nearly 2.5 billion people to urban areas, with 90% of the expansion occurring in Asia and Africa. Gavi’s mission is to ensure that every child is immunized with basic life-saving vaccines, no matter where they live.
From the initial 110 innovations, 10 were selected to participate in the INFUSE workshop and 3 were selected to receive direct Gavi and partner support.
Leveraging digital technologies for finding, identifying and registering the most vulnerable children to ensure a healthier future
Leveraging digital technologies for finding, identifying and registering the most vulnerable children to ensure a healthier future
One in five children in Gavi-supported countries do not receive a full course of the most basic vaccines. One reason for this gap is that an increasing number of people live under the radar. Globally, one in every four children under the age of five lack any proof of identification . Without a reliable record that can be uniquely linked to each child, it is difficult to determine the care he or she needs. The latest digital technologies can provide more effective ways of registering births, issuing proof of identity and authenticating identities to allow access to essential health services. This is especially important for girls, who are more likely to suffer the repercussions of not being registered. In 2018, through INFUSE, Gavi is calling for innovations that leverage new technologies to modernize the process of identifying and registering the children who are most in need of life-saving vaccines.
From the initial 200 innovations, 10 participated in the INFUSE workshop and 4 were selected to receive direct Gavi and partner support.
1 Source: UNICEF Data: Child Protection: Birth Registration. United Nations Children's Fund, 2017; available from https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/birth-registration/.
Mind the equity gap: accelerating tech-enabled innovations to immunise all children
Mind the equity gap: accelerating tech-enabled innovations to immunise all children
The world’s poorest, most vulnerable children often lack access to high-quality immunisation services. Some of the barriers to effective service delivery include; hard-to-reach communities, gender inequality, negative beliefs and misinformation about vaccines, lack of understanding about if and when to return for doses, poor experiences using health facilities, systemic issues: vaccine supply, stock management, lack of registrations and data quality. INFUSE 2017 called for tech-enabled, proven innovations that promote immunisation uptake and improve health-service delivery in developing countries.
From the initial 100 innovations, 18 participated in the INFUSE workshop and 7 were selected to receive direct Gavi and partner support.
Innovation to improve immunisation systems’ data availability, quality and usage
Innovation to improve immunisation systems’ data availability, quality and usage
Quality data is fundamental to help protect vulnerable populations from illness, disease outbreaks and pandemics. In its inaugural year, INFUSE 2016's call for innovation was to help Gavi-supported countries overcome barriers to vaccine delivery by accelerating access to innovations designed to improve data availability, quality and usage.
From the initial 70 innovations, 18 participated in the INFUSE workshop and 7 were selected to receive direct Gavi and partner support.
