NISH and WHO successfully hosted the 2nd Annual Vaccinology Course for NITAGs in Cape Town

21 Jul 2023 | By NISH
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21 Jul 2023 | By NISH

The 2nd Annual Vaccinology Course for NITAGs (AVCN) was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3 – 7 July 2023.

Overall, this 2nd offering of the AVCN welcomed 45 participants which included NITAG members from eight countries within the WHO African (AFRO) and Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) regions, namely, Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Libya, Liberia, and Zambia. The participating NITAGs were selected in consultation with WHO AFRO and EMRO, with a focus on recently established NITAGs or new members of more established NITAGs. Also in attendance were the WHO Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI) focal persons from the eight countries. The EPI focal persons were invited to attend as the 2nd AVCN was a unique opportunity to strengthen engagement with their respective NITAGs so as to better support them in applying key concepts gleaned from the training to produce timely, evidence-informed recommendations.

The NISH project continuously strives to tailor the AVCN to meet NITAGs’ specific training needs in vaccinology. Therefore, the 2nd AVCN programme drew on participant feedback from the inaugural course. Furthermore, the programme was anchored in the Evidence to Recommendation (EtR) framework. The training was facilitated by a faculty comprising of experts from the University of Cape Town, the University of Adelaide, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), US CDC, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the South Africa Centre for Evidence (SACE), and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

Experts from the NISH partners, namely WHO and The Global NITAG Network (GNN) also facilitated at the workshop. To facilitate rich engagement and ensure the best-possible learning experience for participants from Anglophone and Francophone countries, all presentations and discussions were supported by simultaneous interpretation.

The 2nd AVCN aims were to:

  • Provide a forum for sharing country-specific immunisation policymaking experiences.
  • Broaden understanding of the challenges and opportunities in vaccinology at regional and global levels, including equity.
  • Expose NITAGs to epidemiological and immunological concepts applicable to vaccine decision-making.
  • Expose NITAGs to the intersection between vaccinology and modelling, health economics, health systems, design thinking and communication.
  • Foster communication and networking among NITAGs in Africa.
  • Identify areas for collaboration and technical capacity development.

Feedback from daily evaluations and the After Action Review demonstrated that the 2nd AVCN was a resounding success as participants felt that all the course aims and their expectations were met:

“Continue the participatory process: group discussion and interactive sessions”

“Learning methodology that keeps participants awake”

“Hearing the country reports […] clarified that though challenges were very similar the challenges could be overcome with support from NISH, WHO, GNN and networking amongst ourselves as NITAGs Keep up the inclusion of participants opinion and country information sharing”

“Appreciated the quality of the interpretation”

Other course highlights included opportunities for the NITAGs to share country-specific experiences. The training approach which steered away from didactic lectures to allow for participatory learning was very well received. Overall, participants found the course to be very well organised, and the course content and session format engaging and highly relevant. The NISH project is funded by the Wellcome Trust.