Source: Michael Nwangi, 2023

child health

Results advocates for equitable access to routine immunisation and polio services so that all children are fully immunised against vaccine-preventable diseases and able to access necessary vaccines throughout their life, in line with SDG3 – healthy lives and wellbeing for all.

This includes prioritising ‘zero-dose’ children (children who have received no vaccines at all), highlighting the importance of community health workers and localised approaches in increasing vaccine uptake, and working towards the establishment of regional vaccine manufacturing capacity (including in the context of pandemic preparedness).

how we take action

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi was founded in 2000, with the remit of ensuring that children in lowest-income countries have access to necessary, life-saving vaccines. By early 2023, Gavi had delivered over 1 billion vaccines since its inception. Results supports Gavi by advocating for it to receive sufficient resources from donors such as the UK Government, and sharing policy recommendations for a more equitable and sustainable way of working and implementing its mission.

Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI)

Results advocates for the work of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), an international partnership founded in 1988. It has helped countries to make huge progress in protecting the global population from this debilitating disease, and as a result, the global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9% since the programme’s inauguration. When the GPEI was founded, polio paralysed more than 1,000 children every day. Since then, more than 2.5 billion children have been immunised against polio thanks to the cooperation of more than 200 countries and 20 million volunteers. It is estimated that 16 million people today are walking who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease, and more than 1.5 million people are alive whose lives would have otherwise been lost. Now, the task remains to tackle polio in its last few strongholds and get rid of the final 0.1% of polio cases that remain.

All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vaccinations for All

The goal of the APPG on Vaccinations for All is to raise the political profile of the importance of routine vaccinations within the UK Parliament, and encourage the Government to provide the leadership and funding needed to confront the challenges of ensuring access to vaccines for everyone, no matter where they live. Results acts as the group’s secretariat. The APPG does this by hosting events in Parliament to raise the profile of child health issues, working with civil society and academia to disseminate current policy advice and expertise to parliamentary colleagues, producing policy documents, briefings, and reports, and engaging with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) to collaborate and make recommendations.

Results UK wins

Through Results’ work coordinating the APPG on Vaccinations for All, we have been able to build and maintain a good rapport with UK Parliamentarians interested in immunisation across the political spectrum. Since January 2023, the APPG has grown by nearly 50%.

A recent parliamentary delegation to Kenya gave participating parliamentarians first-hand experience of tuberculosis (TB), immunisation, and nutrition programmes in the country, with the aim of improving knowledge and awareness within the UK Parliament of related global health challenges. While Kenya has historically suffered from high burdens of TB, vaccine-preventable diseases, and malnutrition, it has made significant progress in tackling these issues, offering both reasons for optimism and opportunities for learning how to replicate this success in other parts of the globe.