Juba, 02 December 2016 – Partners and Experts involved in routine immunization services gathered in Juba for a 4- day working session to review the 2016 Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) work plan and finalize plans for 2017 GAVI grant taking into considerations setbacks of July crisis and determining real and practical situations to get the country back on track in order to achieve the goal of ensuring every child is immunized.

The Ministry of Health South Sudan along with partners that included WHO, GAVI, UNICEF, BMGF, USAID and Fund Managers met in Juba from the 29th Nov-2nd Dec to assess and address the bottlenecks facing immunization services.

On the last day, a debriefing meeting was held with the Interagency Coordination Committee (ICC), the highest decision making body for immunization in South Sudan. The meeting was chaired by His Excellency Dr. Riek Gai Kok, the Minister of Health South Sudan and attended by the WHO Country Representative Dr. Abdulmumini Usman,   UNICEF chief of health Dr. Ketema Bezuneh, GAVI representatives and other stakeholders. The Minister while acknowledging the good work done by the team stressed the need for frequent bilateral  meetings between the donors and the Ministry of Health, and promised that a high-level National Committee will meet monthly to assess the status of Immunization activities, and GAVI work plans implementation and that the country will make tremendous efforts for  100% implementation rate.

He stressed the need for health services to be available at the lowest level using the Boma Health Initiative (BHI) and asked for partners to support Governments initiative on BHI.

On his part the WHO Country Rep Dr. Usman informed the team that an accountability framework similar to what has been done at the country level will be instituted at the state and county level in order to make staff more productive and accountable, he also asked that high-level supervisory visits need to be conducted by the Minister and his team.

The GAVI team lead by Dr Rehan Hafez thanked all partners and noted the challenges faced in the 2016 GAVI Health System Strengthening 2 grant work plan and advised the Ministry of Health that activities that could not be conducted will be deferred and  prioritized in 2017.

At the end meeting a consensus was reached that  the 2017 routine immunization coverage for South Sudan must be in line with set targets. The GAVI Alliance is a global health partnership of public and private sector organizations dedicated to immunization for all while, with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries.