Tuesday, 24 March 2015
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Delivering immunization is essentially a technical task: it would seem quite inappropriate to expect community members to vaccinate or maintain the cold chain. Yet there is growing evidence (e.g. from RED evaluations in Africa and the ARISE study) that the participation of community leaders, community-based workers, and community members can result in improved coverage and protection. Potentially, community members can be engaged in planning services, social mobilization, raising community understanding and reducing concerns, monitoring services and coverage, providing essential feedback on services, and even in delivering services (in supportive roles, e.g. in counseling on side effects and the next visit). A recent article in Global Health: Science and Practice (http://technet-21.org/en/resources/documents/immunization-delivery-strategies/2006-engaging-communities-with-a-simple-tool-to-help-increase-immunization-coverage) describes experiences in India and Timor-Leste with a promising tool that facilitates community participation in monitoring the vaccination status of every infant in the community.

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