Meet the VDCL Partners: Infectious Diseases Institute, Uganda
Better Futures CoLab is a force for change that aligns the brightest players to design & incubate futures. A key aspect of our approach is partnering with local experts and we are so excited to be working with Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) in Uganda, who provide valuable knowledge, experience, networks and understanding of the local context. We caught up with the team at IDI to find out a bit more about the vaccine ‘state of play’ in the country at the moment and their hopes for working together.
The Infectious Diseases Institute is wholly owned by Makerere University, which is the first public university in East Africa, and is now over 20 years old. Its mission is to strengthen health systems in Africa with an emphasis on infectious diseases — working through research and capacity development.
Meet the team
Dr Mohammed Lamorde, Head of Department, Global Health Security Program, deals with preventing, detecting and responding to outbreaks and other epidemic threats. Some of his most recent work has been around the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination response, as well as the recent Ebola outbreak.
Boneventure Brian Kawere, is a Project Manager and works on several vaccination projects. This includes a COVID-19 vaccination scheme and routine immunization. One of his key roles is around Stakeholder engagement, which he feels links up well with the work the Vaccine Data CoLab and IDI will be doing together as he’ll be mapping the landscape for data utilization.
Current state of play
As with many countries, COVID-19 has been a game-changer in how Uganda perceives and views vaccines. This is largely due to the focus of who is being vaccinated in these programmes. Typically, vaccination programmes focus on infants and children, but COVID-19 vaccines are primarily focused on adults and the elderly who have not been the subjects of vaccinations programmes in this way before.
This shift has led to a significant change in how communities are reached and engaged with, especially as the country has set a 70% vaccination rate for the eligible population. One of the main challenges faced here is sustaining people’s engagement, given that Covid vaccinations require upwards of 2 doses, plus boosters.
Mass vaccination campaigns have seen large success, but rates have recently plateaued so without an innovative approach and significant investment, there will not necessarily be any huge changes in uptake.
After speaking to various stakeholders at regional and national levels, it was clear that enhancements would be needed on access to and utilization of data on vaccination. As part of Vaccine Data CoLab, IDI produced a vaccine data landscape report highlighting the current state of the health data system, convened a “Strategy to Action’’ workshop with key stakeholders across national and local government, data experts, behavior change specialists, NGOs and policy makers to agree on the top three opportunity areas to improve vaccine data for decision making, and are now working to give grants to catalyze solutions to address these opportunities.
What’s next?
The hope is that the work between the Vaccine Data CoLab and IDI will help close some of the gaps around data accessibility, collection and utilization, by creating a platform where conversations can happen, and stakeholders can be brought together to make a difference.
Stay up to date with all things #VaccineDataCoLab by visiting our website and Medium blog.
*NOW CLOSED** The deadline for grant applications to work with us in Uganda is Tuesday 28th February. Read more here and don’t miss your chance to apply.
