COVID-19 Vaccination – The Demand Side

A recent World Vision assessment of national vaccine deployment plans (NVDPs) of nine countries facing some of the highest risks from COVID-19 due to their fragile contexts and vulnerable populations (i.e. Ecuador, Colombia, Uganda, Syria, Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Bangladesh, and Mali) found a number of gaps that must be tackled if vaccine roll-outs are going to be successful, including:

• limited planning to address vaccine hesitancy: 78% of NVDPs did not have an adequate budget provision for implementation of community engagement and vaccine hesitancy interventions
• challenges to reach the most vulnerable: 55% of NVDPs did not identify populations in humanitarian circumstances as high risk and 44% of the governments did not conduct a national vulnerability assessment for the NVDP elaboration
• gaps in coordinating with civil society and community: 55% of the NVDPs did not have an adequate community engagement component.

In order to have a behaviour change strategy that effectively addresses COVID-19 vaccine uptake, plans must address the multiple beliefs and behavioural determinants that pertain to the specific context and populations in order to reduce barriers and leverage enablers identified in vaccine hesitancy studies.