On September 17-19, 2019 The Task Force for Global Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) convened the 3rd Annual CDC and Partnership for Influenza Vaccine Introduction (PIVI) Partners’ Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. The meeting focused on seasonal influenza vaccination program development and evaluation, brought together technical partners, critical stakeholders and the PIVI secretariat. The 74 attendees hailed from 28 countries and represented The Task Force for Global Health (PIVI), CDC, Ministries of Health, World Health Organization (WHO), vaccine manufacturers, academia, and non-governmental health organizations.
The Partners’ meeting provided a focused time for PIVI partners, and seasonal and pandemic influenza experts to come together to share experiences in influenza vaccine program development and implementation. The meeting was structured into three parts, and allowed for small-group discussions outside of the formal agenda to review work-plans, challenges, and opportunities with each PIVI country partner.
Day 1: Share and Learn – presentations and discussions with all participants focused on improving methods of reaching priority targets (with a major focus on health workers), best practices in program evaluation including the expanded use of evaluation tools, creating the evidence base for program improvement, and break-out sessions to discuss lessons learned at the country-level.
Day 2: Expanding the Partnership – presentations and discussions focused on growing the partnership with our current stakeholders and participants, including WHO Headquarters, WHO Regional offices, Gavi, US Department of State, Global Health Development, Vaccines for All, and Department of Health and Human Services. There was also discussion of how to expand the partnership to include additional types of organizations, how to best communicate the success of our work to engage new partners, and how to address sustainability challenges for growth.
Day 3: Strengthening Readiness to Access and Deploy Pandemic Influenza Vaccine – a half-day WHO-led workshop for PIVI country partners on improving pandemic vaccine deployment.
For the full meeting report, click here.
