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New consortium commits to strengthening immunization services in the face of COVID-19

By Celina Kareiva, Senior Communications Associate, BID Initiative

Aug 17, 2020

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Photo: MCSP/Kate Holt. A nurse vaccinates a baby at a clinic in Accra, Ghana.

Last month, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new project that will accelerate and strengthen routine immunization programs by identifying and addressing bottlenecks to the planning, delivery, demand, and uptake of vaccines. The five year, $55 million project, called MOMENTUM 3B, will be led by the JSI Research and Training Institute, in close partnership with PATHCORE GroupResults for DevelopmentThe Manoff Group, and Gobee Group. 

PATH will lead the measurement, data, learning, and adaptive management arm of the consortium, transferring many of the lessons from the BID Learning Network to new contexts. Because of the emphasis in the MOMENTUM awards on using existing global and regional networks, the BID Learning Network is likely to be a critical partner of the consortium and will tap its community of country representatives to understand the realities of immunization programming and current challenges.  

The consortium takes on renewed importance amid a global pandemic of COVID-19 that has disrupted immunization services. Previous outbreaks of Ebola, for example, confirm that even a brief disruption of immunization services can result in unnecessary deaths. In keeping with its mission, the consortium will help countries prepare for the future introduction and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, and a core focus of this award – and other USAID MOMENTUM awards – is to build the capacity of country institutions and host organizations to introduce, deliver, scale up, and sustain the use of evidence-based reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services. USAID country missions can select to buy into this award for national or sub-national targeted technical assistance and capacity building support to overcome their specific entrenched obstacles. 

“Maintaining and strengthening immunization services are more important than ever,” said Jessica Shearer, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Lead for MOMENTUM 3B. “This is a critical opportunity to achieve impact during COVID-19 and to support the integration of immunization with other primary health care services, while contributing to high-impact learning.” 

To learn more about the consortium, read the full press release here. 

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