The global COVID-19 vaccination campaign will be the largest in history. The delivery of COVID-19 vaccines presents challenges unprecedented in scale, speed and specificities, especially in low- and middle income countries. In November 2020, anticipating the availability of safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19, the World Bank together with WHO, UNICEF, the Global Fund, and Gavi rolled out readiness assessments in more than 100 low and middle-income countries.
MAIN REPORT FINDINGS
- As countries ramp up efforts to vaccinate their populations against the deadly COVID-19 disease, the world’s poorest countries show varying degrees of readiness for this massive undertaking.
- The existence of well-functioning child immunization systems is not a strong predictor of country readiness to deliver COVID-19 vaccines.
- Most countries are focusing on strengthening essential aspects of the vaccine delivery chain –enough to advance vaccination schedules and begin inoculating their populations.
- Few countries are using the opportunity provided by the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines to strengthen health systems and find long-lasting solutions for similar future challenges
- COVID-19 vaccination campaigns offer unique opportunities for countries to digitize their information systems for tracking vaccines and monitoring vaccinations
- The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is an opportunity to create environmentally-friendly cold chain that could be of use well beyond the current crisis
- More countries are using indicative top-down methodologies instead of the new assessment framework and associated tools to cost gaps in readiness
