Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Global Grande Challenges – Driving Programmatic Performance in Immunization

The Challenge – Innovations Driving Programmatic Performance in Immunization: Service Experience and Data Use + Measurement seeks to promote the effective use of timely and relevant data to drive programmatic performance, and thus increase the number of children vaccinated globally. The Foundation is looking for innovative ideas in the following areas:

1. Innovative ideas for improving measurement of coverage and equity data for use by program staff and managers. Specifically, their ability to collect data and deliver actionable information at the right time to the appropriate audiences would benefit from:

• Incorporating advances in technology to support decision makers in planning and executing program strategies
• Integration of immunization data systems, as well as the ability to address data use demands from multiple stakeholders
• Enabling a culture that supports data quality and use (e.g., provides feedback on data at multiple levels)
• Alignment of incentives to promote reporting of accurate data above coverage estimates

2. Innovative ideas that improve service delivery and experience for caregivers and/or healthcare workers during vaccination sessions. Questions to consider:

• What if…improvements in processes such as session set-up, caregiver intake, wait times, and session flow, created a more positive environment for caregiver and healthcare worker interactions?
• What if…new approaches to how health education and information is provided were employed to improve service delivery and caregiver behavior?
• What if… caregivers left sessions empowered with a clear sense of: why immunization matters, when/where they need to return, and how to cope with any side effects their child may experience?
• What if…a number of novel approaches were integrated successfully to reduce missed opportunities for vaccination? These and similar innovations may draw from lean healthcare, design thinking or other approaches, but should have the end goal of improving the experience of caregivers, healthcare workers, or both.

Successful proposals will include:

• A clear hypothesis underlying the proposed approach to improve immunization programs and/or improving the service delivery experience of beneficiaries.
• Details on the design and pilot testing of the approach in their application.
• A plan for evaluating the effectiveness of the approach for improved measurement of the immunization program and/or improving the service delivery experience of beneficiaries.
• Outline of the design of the proposed approach/intervention.
  Innovations that involve building on, disrupting, or adapting existing systems. Successful proposals will describe how their approach would work within existing health systems or what change would need to occur within health systems for their approach to be effective.

Additionally, the Foundation will consider proposals in low-income countries that:

• Consider user needs and do not increase burden upon frontline health workers
• Minimize perverse incentives (including incentives for falsification)
• Minimize human and system errors in data collection/analysis/use
• Are relevant in multiple developing country settings
• Data types of interest: All immunization system indicators, e.g., supervision, planning, finance, supply chain, management, demand, coverage, dropout
• Constitute transformative rather than incremental improvements and are deliverable and scalable in low-income countries

Amount: Grants of up to $100,000 each will be awarded for a period of 18 months.

Eligibility: Private and public organizations. Individuals must be affiliated with an organization to apply.

Link: https://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/innovations-driving-programmatic-performance-immunization

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