Design a national or subnational immunisation schedule aligned with current recommendations.
Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Management
National Immunisation Programme Coverage Planning and Uptake Strategies
Plan national immunisation schedules, forecast vaccine supply and cold chain capacity, read coverage and dropout data, and design demand-generation strategies that raise and sustain uptake.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
National immunisation programmes stall when supply planning, coverage measurement and demand generation are managed as separate functions instead of one system. Programme managers need to align vaccine forecasting, cold chain capacity and district microplans with real coverage data, then act on dropout and zero-dose patterns before they harden into outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease. This course works through the full immunisation programme cycle: setting schedules against current recommendations, forecasting doses and cold chain equipment needs, reading administrative and survey coverage data, and identifying zero-dose and under-immunised pockets by district. Participants build demand-generation and hesitancy-response plans grounded in behavioural evidence, alongside adverse-event-following-immunisation surveillance and risk communication protocols for handling safety signals without eroding trust. Exercises use anonymised coverage datasets and district microplans rather than named country examples. The course closes with financing and digitalisation choices, including co-financing transitions and immunisation registries, that keep coverage gains after a campaign ends. Participants leave with a coverage improvement plan, a microplanning template and a hesitancy-response protocol they can adapt to their own catchment area.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Forecast vaccine doses, cold chain capacity and wastage rates for a defined catchment population.
Analyse administrative and survey coverage data to identify dropout and zero-dose clusters by district.
Build a microplan that reaches zero-dose and under-immunised children through targeted outreach.
Apply behavioural evidence to design demand-generation messaging that addresses specific hesitancy drivers.
Operate an adverse-event-following-immunisation surveillance and risk communication protocol.
Evaluate financing transitions and digital registry options that sustain coverage after a campaign.
Who Should Attend
Immunisation programme managers and national vaccination coordinators.
District health officers responsible for microplanning and outreach scheduling.
Cold chain and vaccine logistics officers in ministries of health or supply agencies.
Public health nurses and community health worker supervisors delivering routine immunisation.
Health communication specialists designing demand-generation and hesitancy-response campaigns.
Monitoring and evaluation officers analysing coverage, dropout and equity indicators.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Immunisation Schedule Design and Supply Forecasting
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Setting the National Immunisation Schedule
- Compare national schedule options against current position papers and regional recommendations for antigen timing.
- Map the schedule to service delivery platforms, including fixed sites, outreach and school-based rounds.
- Assess new antigen introduction criteria, including disease burden data and cold chain readiness.
- Draft a governance structure that assigns schedule-change decisions to a national immunisation technical advisory group.
Session 2Vaccine Supply Forecasting and Cold Chain Logistics
- Forecast annual dose requirements using population denominators, wastage rates and buffer stock rules.
- Size cold chain equipment against recognised specifications and temperature monitoring requirements.
- Plan vaccine vial monitor checks and stock management to reduce freeze damage and expiry losses.
- Coordinate donor co-financing schedules with domestic procurement and customs clearance timelines.
02Coverage Measurement and Equity Analysis
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Reading Coverage and Dropout Data
- Triangulate administrative coverage data with survey estimates to correct for denominator errors.
- Calculate dropout rates between first and third doses to flag service delivery weaknesses.
- Map coverage by district and ward to identify persistent low-performing catchment areas.
- Distinguish measurement artefacts from genuine coverage decline using data quality self-assessment tools.
Session 2Reaching Zero-Dose and Under-Immunised Children
- Profile zero-dose children by geographic, social and health-system access barriers.
- Design a microplan that sequences outreach, mobile teams and periodic intensification rounds.
- Budget last-mile delivery costs against expected coverage gains for remote or mobile populations.
- Coordinate with community health workers and local leaders to validate household-level target lists.
03Demand Generation and Hesitancy Management
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Behavioural Drivers of Vaccine Hesitancy
- Apply a capability-opportunity-motivation framework to diagnose caregiver hesitancy drivers.
- Segment target audiences by hesitancy type rather than treating refusal as a single category.
- Design messaging and interpersonal communication scripts for frontline vaccinators and community workers.
- Test message concepts with caregiver focus groups before wide-scale rollout.
Session 2Risk Communication and Crisis Response
- Draft a rapid-response protocol for responding to safety rumours or adverse event clusters.
- Coordinate spokesperson roles across health ministry, programme and local government levels.
- Monitor social media and community sentiment for early signals of emerging hesitancy.
- Rebuild trust following a coverage disruption through transparent data sharing and community dialogue.
04Safety Surveillance and Programme Sustainability
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Adverse Event Surveillance and Vaccine Safety Governance
- Operate an adverse-event-following-immunisation reporting and causality assessment process.
- Coordinate with a national immunisation safety committee on signal review and public communication.
- Distinguish coincidental events from vaccine-attributable reactions using standard case definitions.
- Document lot-level investigation procedures for suspected quality-related adverse events.
Session 2Financing, Digitalisation and Programme Evaluation
- Plan the transition from donor co-financing to domestic budget lines for vaccine procurement.
- Specify requirements for an immunisation information system or digital registry rollout.
- Build a coverage and equity dashboard that tracks zero-dose trends between reporting cycles.
- Evaluate programme performance annually against coverage, dropout and safety indicators to set the next cycle's targets.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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