Tanzania pledges to work with GAVI in conducting immunization programmes conrywide
DODOMA: THE Ministry of Health will continue working with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to improve immunisation services and protect the health of Tanzanians.
The statement was made in Dodoma by Emmanuel Tayari, Deputy Permanent Secretary responsible for Medicines and Medical Devices, who represented the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Grace Magembe, during a meeting with GAVI representatives and stakeholders in Tanzania.
The meeting reviewed the implementation of the country’s five-year immunisation programme covering the period from 2021 to 2025.
Tayari said the partnership between Tanzania and GAVI began more than a decade ago, with more than 597m US dollars invested to strengthen immunisation services in the country.
He said Tanzania had made significant progress in vaccine coverage, with immunisation rates for various vaccines exceeding 90 percent, above the global target of 80 percent.
“On behalf of the Ministry of Health, I would like to inform you that through this partnership, Tanzania succeeded in eradicating polio in 2015, a disease that posed a serious threat to the lives of children under the age of five,” Tayari said.
He added that the government, through the Ministry of Health, has developed a five-year National Immunization Strategy for 2026–2030 aimed at further strengthening vaccination services.
According to Tayari, the strategy seeks to build a resilient society in which every child is protected against vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs).
For his part, Mario Jimenez, GAVI’s Senior Manager in Tanzania, commended the government, through the Ministry of Health, for its effective oversight of immunisation programmes between 2020 and 2025.
Jimenez said the programmes had enabled vaccination services to reach a large number of children across the country, including girls under the age of nine who were vaccinated against cervical cancer.
