Vaccine Distribution to Low and Middle Income African Countries
Emilia Blechschmidt
Summary:
Low and middle income countries in Africa lack necessary medical supplies for their population to survive. Lack of necessary funds, inefficient supply chains, and incorrect information all contribute to this problem. Vaccines specifically are a life-saving tool that is needed in Africa. What is the best way to distribute vaccines? What is most cost efficient? What’s the best way to get accurate information about the supplies needed in these countries? This project hopes to answer all of these questions and bring light to the inequality in the distribution of vaccines.
Environmental Scan:
While there is a lot of research and information about vaccines inequality, there is little research looking at past vaccine campaigns and which worked the best and why. I intend to look at previous vaccine campaigns in Africa and assess which worked the best/worst and why. Hopefully, this can then be applied to future campaigns or current ones that are inefficient. I also intend to tie this together with the best distribution methods currently in place. Finally, I want to look at the correlation between how many resources and how much money was used for each campaign and find the most economically efficient.
Requirements for Development:
I will need information about different past campaigns, current research about vaccine supply chains, and data detailing different vaccine distributions. This should all be accessible and open to the public as long as it is cited. I can contact my mentors, Carrie Pirmann and Claire Cahoon, my staff mentor, Professor Wolaver, my personal librarian, Ally Wood, or Elosise Stevens with any questions about my project, tools available, or copyright issues.
Working Bibliography:
“1 in 5 Children in Africa Do Not Have Access to Life-Saving Vaccines.” World Health Organization, 2015, www.afro.who.int/news/1-5-children-africa-do-not-have-access-life-saving-vaccines.
De Boeck, Kim, et al. “Vaccine Distribution Chains in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Literature Review.” Omega, vol. 97, 2020, p. 102097, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2019.08.004.
“Eastern and Southern Africa’s Covid-19 Vaccination Journey.” World Bank, www.worldbank.org/en/news/immersive-story/2022/06/30/unlocking-supply-and-overcoming-hesitancy-eastern-and-southern-africa-s-covid-19-vaccination-journey#group-section-Supporting-Vaccine-Roll-Outs-mDo5yF9cLU. Accessed 5 June 2023.
“How the World Bank Group Is Helping Developing Countries to Vaccinate Their Populations.” World Bank Blogs, blogs.worldbank.org/voices/how-world-bank-group-helping-developing-countries-vaccinate-their-populations. Accessed 5 June 2023.
Kohneh, Jamal Nahofti, et al. “An Optimization Framework for COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Inventory Management: A Case Study.” Applied Soft Computing, 12 Nov. 2022, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156849462200850X.
Loembé, Marguerite Massinga, and John N. Nkengasong. “Covid-19 Vaccine Access in Africa: Global Distribution, Vaccine Platforms, and Challenges Ahead.” Immunity, 13 July 2021, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1074761321002612.
Sidibé, Michel. “Vaccine Inequity: Ensuring Africa Is Not Left Out.” Brookings, 9 Mar. 2022, www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2022/01/24/vaccine-inequity-ensuring-africa-is-not-left-out/.
Songane, Mario. “Challenges for Nationwide Vaccine Delivery in African Countries.” International Journal of Health Economics and Management, vol. 18, no. 2, 2017, pp. 197–219, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-017-9229-5.
Subramanian, Lakshmy. “Effective Demand Forecasting in Health Supply Chains: Emerging Trend, Enablers, and Blockers.” MDPI, 28 Feb. 2021, www.mdpi.com/2305-6290/5/1/12.
Vouking, Marius Zambou, et al. “Interventions to Increase the Distribution of Vaccines in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review.” Pan African Medical Journal, 2019, www.ajol.info/index.php/pamj/article/view/208164.
Yadav, Prashant. “Full Article: Health Product Supply Chains in Developing Countries …” Tayor & Francis Online, 2014, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.4161/23288604.2014.968005.
Deliverables:
- Home page with intro to the project
- Research question(s)
- What are the current problems
- Why does it matter
- Background
- Easy to navigate site that makes sense when going in order
- Intro → background → current problems → past campaigns → solutions to supply problems → future uses
- Sources Page
- Sites used
- GIS/tableau/other tools used
- About page
- Contributors and thanks
- Biography
- Why I chose this project
- Link to DSSRF site
- Figures
- Map showing inequality
- Map where countries get their vaccines from
- Map of how many of the vaccines are used in each country
- Flow chart of supply chain and the problems it holds
Timeline:
- Week June 5:
- Complete Lit review
- Start Data Collection vaccine distribution
- Week June 12:
- Continue Data Collection vaccine distribution
- Map of Vaccine Inequality
- Week June 19:
- Continue Data Collection vaccine distribution and economic value to each
- Assess economic value and what is most efficient
- Map Vaccine Distribution
- Week June 26:
- Continue data Collection
- Flowchart of supply chains
- Week July 3:
- Any other maps/charts/infographics necessary
- Week July 10:
- Put site together and write intro and information on all the pages
- Week July 17:
- Clean up Site
- Any remind information/tweaks/finish projects
- Finished Project July 21
Future Plans:
I hope to continue this project and research into next year. I know a lot of people have used their DSSRF project in their honors thesis and I would like to do that as well. I am really interested in this topic and I think there is a lot that could be expanded upon, and hopefully will expand upon in the future. This website will give a solid foundation for future research in this area and in my major.