News

This World Bank Blog, part of the Invest in Health series analyzes the challenge of financing routine immunization of children globally, that were missed during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Overview

‘The Big Catch-Up’ is the theme of this year’s World Immunization Week, emphasizing the need to catch-up on the millions of children who missed out on receiving routine immunizations during the pandemic. This sharp two-year decline follows almost a decade of stalled progress, underscoring the need for investment in primary health care (PHC) services, with explicit support to strengthen and sustain essential immunization services.

The coming months and years will bring increasing financing challenges to immunization programs in many low- and lower-middle income countries due in part to constrained or shrinking health budgets.  Governments should ensure that processes are in place for prioritizing immunization program investments and that these are linked to broader health sector prioritization processes. 

Read the full World Bank Blog for a detailed analysis.