Seedstars Vaccine Delivery Challenge

How might we empower caregivers to seek and fully utilise immunisation services in their communities?

THE OPPORTUNITY

Immunisation represents one of public health’s most valuable and cost-effective interventions and delivers positive health, social, and economic benefits. Globally, an estimated 2-3 million child deaths and 600,000 adult deaths are prevented by vaccination on an annual basis. Vaccination has been shown to contribute to improved childhood physical development, higher educational outcomes, reduced poverty and household spending, and enhances equity (Deogaonkar et al. 2015; Verguet et al 2013). Despite the documented benefits of vaccines and immunisation, global immunisation coverage continues to stagnate, and we are off-track to reach the 2020 targets for coverage and equity articulated by both the Global Vaccine Action Plan, as well as the Gavi Alliance. We believe that “demand-side” factors have an increasingly important role to play in helping accelerate progress.

THE CHALLENGE

Within this call to increase demand for vaccination services, and thus increase the number of children vaccinated globally, we are looking for innovative solutions for providing convenience to and practical knowledge about vaccines and vaccination services to caregivers, which may include:
– Familiarising caregivers with information on where and when routine and/or campaign services are provided,
– Educating caregivers about how many times a child should be vaccinated and the importance of timely vaccination,
– Addressing common concerns (multiple injections, post-vaccination discomfort) that may result in missed opportunities for vaccination,
– Empowering caregivers to ask for full vaccination services,
– Behavioural “nudges” for seeking vaccination services and translating intention into action.

ELIGIBILITY

1. Existing startups/young companies (<4 years) in the vaccination space in the African startup community,
2. Existing startups/young companies (<4 years) that can pivot their current solution to the vaccine service delivery space,
3. The Startup must have a demonstrable product or service (Minimum Viable Product, MVP),
4. The Startup needs to be scalable or have the potential to reach scalability in low resource areas.