April 2023 — The UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) has been conducting social and behavior change (SBC) programming throughout the region related to COVID-19 immunization, routine immunization, and maternal newborn child health (MNCH). The East and Southern Africa region experiences low COVID-19 vaccination rates which vary across the ESAR countries from 11% in Madagascar to 80% in Comoros. Concurrently, the secondary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in a drop in routine immunization coverage as reflected in the 2021 WHO/UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC).

To address this drop in routine immunization and to inform ongoing SBC programming aimed at improving demand for Covid-19 vaccines, uptake of routine immunizations, and utilization of MNCH services, UNICEF ESARO contracted the company GeoPoll to conduct a Rapid Needs Assessment survey across six East African countries (Angola, Comoros, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Malawi, and Tanzania). From November 11th, 2022, through January 1st of 2023, 6,299 survey responses were collected across all six countries. The majority of those surveyed (88%) were primary caregivers of children.

The Round 1 Report provides evidence-based insights on COVID-19 vaccine uptake, routine childhood immunization and maternal newborn child health (MNCH). It also puts forward the optimized behavior change programmatic recommendations correspondingly to problems of the current evaluation for the six countries. While SBC interventions must be customized to country-level circumstances and take the post-COVID-19 public health context into consideration, this report possesses an important reference value to future programming and messaging.

Click here to read the full report.