Immunization
Vaccines are the world's safest method to protect children from life-threatening diseases.
Overview | What we do | Reports | Data | News
Vaccines are among the greatest advances in global health and development. For over two centuries, they've safely reduced the scourge of diseases like polio, measles and smallpox, helping children grow up happy and healthy.
Thanks to immunization efforts worldwide, children are able to walk, play, dance and learn. Vaccinated children do better at school, with economic benefits that ripple across their communities. Today, vaccines are estimated to be one of the most cost-effective means of advancing national welfare.
Despite these longstanding benefits, we’re witnessing the largest sustained backslide in childhood vaccination rates for the first time in three decades.
Violent conflicts, displacement, COVID-19-related disruptions, and vaccine misinformation have cut children off from routine immunizations. Some 25 million children are now missing out on life-saving vaccines every year, placing them at risk of preventable diseases like measles and pertussis. The most poor and marginalized children – often most in need of vaccines – continue to be the least likely to get them.
UNICEF works to ensure that children across the world – no matter who they are or where they live – have access to the vaccines they need to survive and thrive.
What we do
Together with partners, UNICEF reaches almost half the world’s children with life-saving vaccines each year.
In over 100 countries, we work with governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other United Nations (UN) agencies to engage communities, procure and distribute vaccines, keep supplies safe and effective, and facilitate affordable access for even the hardest-to-reach families.
Vaccine delivery is just one aspect of our work in this field. UNICEF also invests in community health systems to improve supply chains, data systems and disease surveillance – helping more children receive the protection they need.
Our focus areas
Reaching those most in need
Many of the world’s unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children live in countries affected by conflict and instability. UNICEF works with partners to establish, maintain and improve the cold chain for vaccines and other essential medical supplies, and to put health teams torn apart by conflict back in place.
No matter how challenging or remote the setting is, we find new ways to reach the children most at risk of life-threatening diseases.
Our efforts prioritize marginalized and underserved communities and strengthen the front-line health workforce needed to reach them. We also engage with communities themselves to learn their values and needs around quality vaccination services.
The supply chain
From procurement to storage, distribution to waste management, UNICEF works across the vaccine supply chain to strengthen systems, build capacity and support innovation.
We strengthen immunization services by providing governments with technical assistance, policy development, guidance and operational support.
UNICEF also helps countries manage vaccine stocks and cold chain equipment, deploying innovative approaches using solar power, mobile technology and telemetrics. This helps to ensure vaccines reach children without losing effectiveness from exposure to extreme weather.
Vaccine procurement and supply
As one of the world’s largest buyers of vaccines and other life-saving supplies, UNICEF has unique leverage to negotiate the lowest prices. Buying big and being transparent enables us to shape markets, cut costs and increase efficiency – saving more lives. UNICEF's market-shaping efforts have even contributed to the relative stability, and in some cases decline, in childhood vaccine prices.
Technology and innovation
Working with private and public partners, UNICEF steers investment towards new vaccines and technologies – including diagnostic and health technologies, solar technology and digital platforms. We strive to scale up the most appropriate tech to expand the reach of immunization programmes.
Disease eradication and elimination
Thanks to continuous work in immunization, the world is close to eradicating polio. Vaccination against measles, rubella and tetanus are also bringing us towards the elimination of these diseases in most geographic areas.
But the recent backslide of vaccination rates has put more children at risk of preventable diseases. UNICEF is intensifying efforts to reach these children – many of whom live in underserved communities – through vaccination catch-up campaigns.
Environmental sustainability
UNICEF promotes initiatives that optimize waste management and use environmentally friendly products. For example, we support the replacement of absorption fridges with solar technology to strengthen sustainability along the cold chain.
Demand for immunization
UNICEF aims to reduce the spread of misinformation and ensure that families have access to accurate data on immunization so they can make the best decisions for their children.
We engage communities in designing, delivering and assessing vaccination efforts – starting by listening. Our teams work directly with parents to understand their fears and concerns. We also know that local health workers are better positioned than anyone to address them. As one of the most trusted sources of information on health and vaccines, health workers play a key role in building vaccine confidence.
UNICEF’s approach to immunization includes strengthening the quality of interactions between health workers and communities. We partner with frontline workers and other trusted community leaders, like faith leaders, to help them combat misinformation and ease caregivers’ concerns.
At the national level, we also strengthen the capacity of countries to apply behavioural insights through implementation research, social listening and infodemic management.
Immunization planning, budgeting and financing
UNICEF works to ensure that vaccines and immunization services are adequately financed by governments and donors, with fully executed and transparent budgets. In collaboration with key partners, our teams also conduct studies and evaluations, and offer direct technical support to immunization programmes globally.
