The second annual Vaccination Acceptance Research Network Conference (VARN2023): Shifting the immunization narrative to center equity and community expertise.

Promoting vaccine acceptance and demand is an essential, yet often underrecognized component of ensuring that everyone has access to the full benefits of immunization. Convened by the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the Vaccination Acceptance Research Network (VARN) is a global network of multidisciplinary stakeholders driving strengthened vaccination acceptance, demand, and delivery. VARN works to advance and apply social and behavioral science insights, research, and expertise to the challenges and opportunities facing vaccination decision-makers. The second annual VARN conference, When Communities Lead, Global Immunization Succeeds, was held June 13-15, 2023, in Bangkok, Thailand. VARN2023 provided a space for the exploration and dissemination of a growing body of evidence, knowledge, and practice for driving action across the vaccination acceptance, demand, and delivery ecosystem. VARN2023 was co-convened by Sabin and UNICEF and co-sponsored by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. VARN2023 brought together 231 global, regional, national, sub-national, and community-level representatives from 47 countries. The conference provided a forum to share learnings and solutions from work conducted across 40+ countries. This article is a synthesis of evidence-based insights from the VARN2023 Conference within four key recommendations: (1) Make vaccine equity and inclusion central to programming to improve vaccine confidence, demand, and delivery; (2) Prioritize communities in immunization service delivery through people-centered approaches and tools that amplify community needs to policymakers, build trust, and combat misinformation; (3) Encourage innovative community-centric solutions for improved routine immunization coverage; and (4) Strengthen vaccination across the life course through building vaccine demand, service integration, and improving the immunization service experience. Insights from VARN can be applied to positively impact vaccination acceptance, demand, and uptake around the world.

Building a way forward: Enabling community voices to forge the path toward successful immunization for all.

Community engagement is vital to the development of people-centered, successful vaccination programs. The diverse Vaccination Acceptance Research Network (VARN) community brings together interdisciplinary professionals from across the immunization ecosystem who play a crucial role in vaccination acceptance, demand, and delivery. Over the course of the VARN2023 conference, researchers and practitioners alike shared ideas and experiences focused on strategies and approaches to building trust between communities and health systems to increase equity in vaccination. Health professionals and community members must have equal value in the design and delivery of community-centered immunization services, while key vaccination decision-makers must also consider community experiences, concerns, and expertise in program design and policymaking. Therefore, strategies for community engagement and cultivating trust with communities are crucial for the success of any immunization program. Furthermore, health workers need additional skills, support, and resources to effectively communicate complex information about immunization, including effective strategies for countering misinformation. This article summarizes three skills-building sessions offered at the VARN2023 conference, focused on human-centered design, motivational interviewing, and engaging with journalists to leverage the voices of communities. These sessions offered practical, evidence-based tools for use across geographic and social settings that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders to increase vaccination demand and uptake in their communities.

Shaping global vaccine acceptance with localized knowledge: a report from the inaugural VARN2022 conference.

The first conference of the Vaccination Acceptance Research Network, VARN2022: Shaping Global Vaccine Acceptance with Localized Knowledge, was held virtually, from March 1st to 3rd 2022. This inaugural event brought together a global representation of experts to discuss key priorities and opportunities emerging across the ecosystem of vaccine acceptance and demand, from policies to programs and practice. Convened by the Sabin Vaccine Institute, VARN aims to support dialogue among multidisciplinary stakeholders to enhance the uptake of social and behavioral science-based solutions for vaccination decision-makers and implementers. The conference centered around four key themes: 1) Understanding vaccine acceptance and its drivers; 2) One size does not fit all: community- and context-specific approaches to increase vaccine acceptance and demand; 3) Fighting the infodemic and harnessing social media for good; and 4) Frameworks, data integrity and evaluation of best practices. Across the conference, presenters and participants considered the drivers of and strategies to increase vaccine acceptance and demand relating to COVID-19 vaccination and other vaccines across the life-course and across low-, middle- and high-income settings. VARN2022 provided a wealth of evidence from around the world, highlighting the need for human-centered, multi-sectoral and transdisciplinary approaches to improve vaccine acceptance and demand. This report summarizes insights from the diverse presentations and discussions held at VARN2022, which will form a roadmap for future research, policy making, and interventions to improve vaccine acceptance and demand globally.

Community-Based Approaches to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake and Demand: Lessons Learned from Four UNICEF-Supported Interventions.

Vaccination is critical to minimize serious illness and death from COVID-19. Yet uptake of COVID-19 vaccines remains highly variable, particularly among marginalized communities. This article shares lessons learned from four UNICEF interventions that supported Governments to generate acceptance and demand for COVID-19 vaccines in Zambia, Iraq, Ghana, and India. In Zambia, community rapid assessment provided invaluable real-time insights around COVID-19 vaccination and allowed the identification of population segments that share beliefs and motivations regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Findings were subsequently used to develop recommendations tailored to the different personas. In Iraq, a new outreach approach (3iS: Intensification of Integrated Immunization) utilized direct community engagement to deliver health messages and encourage service uptake, resulting in over 4.4 million doses of COVID-19 and routine immunization vaccines delivered in just 8 months. In Ghana, a human-centered design initiative was applied to co-develop community-informed strategies to improve COVID-19 vaccination rates. In India, a risk communication and community engagement initiative reached half a million people over six months, translating into a 25% increase in vaccination rates. These shared approaches can be leveraged to improve COVID-19 vaccination coverage and close gaps in routine immunization across diverse and marginalized communities.