National Immunization Strategies (NIS) Guidelines

Johanna FIHMAN

WHO and partners have worked together to develop a framework to support countries in strategy development. The National Immunization Strategy (NIS) guidelines, published in August 2021 build on the experience of comprehensive multiyear plans (cMYPs), and call for: 

  • Greater integration of immunization with other health interventions, national planning cycles and UHC target setting
  • An increased focus on long-term goals with intermediary objectives and key strategies needed to achieve them
  • Country ownership with inclusive design processes, as well astailored approaches that take account of local and national context
  • A negotiation process with Ministry of Health and Finance leading to an agreed financial envelopeto fund key strategic priorities; and
  • Increasing reliance on domestic sources of funding

 The NIS focuses on a strategic period of 5 years and defines:

  • The immunization vision to be achieved over the long term (generally 10 years). 
  • Specific objectives to be achieved at the end of the strategic period (5 years). These are the intermediate outcomes along the way to achieving the vision.
  • Priority strategies, consisting of a costed set of interventions to achieve the objectives, as well as the measures to mitigate against risks associated with the selected interventions.

The NIS guidelines are available on the WHO website: 

  1. NIS Guidelines: a step-by-step guide for country stakeholders on how to develop an NIS
  2. NIS FAQs: further details, including definitions of key concepts and terms
  3. NIS Annexes: supporting documents, including templates and country examples
  4. NIS Costing Approach(NIS.COST):Developed by UNICEF, a Google sheet application to support the estimation of NIS resource requirements: NIS.COST — ImmunizationEconomics.org
  5. Annual Operational Planning (AOP) guidelines: guidance and tools to support the transition from the NIS into actionable tasks at https://immunizationeconomics.org/unicef-national-planning-and-budgeting

The WHO NIS Team is working closely with Regional Offices and partners to support the roll out of the NIS approach and guidelines. Contact at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..