January 2023 — Despite COVID-19 vaccines being available and freely accessible to all eligible persons in line with the national COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Plan (CVDP), in Western Kenya, counties like Migori, Busia and Homa Bay were recorded very low cases of COVID-19 vaccination. As of April 2022, Migori County had only vaccinated 29.8 per cent of its target adult population (557,657), Busia County 28.2 percent of 465,190 and Homa Bay 25.9 percent of 608,326 of the adult population.

To expand the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in these three counties, UNICEF Kenya in collaboration with the counties’ department of health prioritized interventions to address vaccine hesitancy and improve vaccine confidence and compliance as part of the vaccine roll-out plan, using evidence from pixel-level mapping and social media listening to understand and address population concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccination.

Main approaches to boost COVID-19 vaccination coverage include:

• Taking COVID-19 vaccination to secondary schools and tertiary learning institutions: School-based vaccination provided an opportunity for eligible learners and teachers to get vaccinated without much disruption to learning activities, and therefore proved to be a very effective initiative to push up COVID-19 vaccination coverage.

• Community and stakeholder engagements: UNICEF in collaboration with the government and other partners worked together to provide financial and technical support to the three Counties. UNICEF engaged women groups, fishing communities, and motorbike taxi riders to offer entry points for mobilization and demand creation. In partnership with religious leaders by having the places of worship as vaccination centers, UNICEF conducted social mobilization for COVID-19 vaccination drives among congregations.

Following the rollout of these interventions, vaccination rates jumped up from 29.8% to 39.6%, 28.2% to 34.7% and from 25.9% to 38.5% in Migori, Busia and Homa bay respectively, between April and August 2022.

Key Lessons Learnt include:

1. Working with partners promoted synergies and expanded COVID-19 coverage in the Counties. In counties like Homa Bay, resources from partners such as World Health Organization (WHO), Centre for International Health, Education and Biosecurity (CIHEB) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC) supported partners were pulled together and since each partner covered a specific geographical space. This reduced duplication of resources and promoted collaboration. Partnerships beyond the health sector such as with religious leaders and education stakeholders are crucial to this, as to most such endeavors to improve health across all of society.

2. Media advocacy through social media and local radio stations on COVID-19 vaccines created awareness and reached a wider and more diverse audience in turn increasing demand for COVID-19 vaccine. Along with new innovations that enabled UNICEF and partners to understand concerns with COVID-19 vaccination (high hesitancy with low compliance, low convenience, and low confidence), social media listening, and high pixel digital mapping provided an opportunity to target and address issues, lifting vaccination rates.