Empowering local leaders to improve childhood immunisation in Papua New Guinea

Nearly half of all children in Papua New Guinea miss out on routine vaccinations by their first birthday – leaving them vulnerable to preventable diseases. A new partnership-driven initiative aims to change that by putting communities at the centre of the solution.

The Vaccine Champion Plus program, funded by UNICEF and supported by the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance (ARIA), is being implemented in Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provinces. It brings together a powerful coalition of partners including the Burnet Institute, CARE PNG, the National Department of Health PNG, UNICEF, Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), University of Sydney and UNSW Sydney. The program will also work closely with the Provincial Health Authorities of Eastern Highlands, Morobe and Madang.

The core strategy will use human-centred design principles to upskill healthcare providers and community leaders to enable them to better communicate the benefits of routine childhood vaccines. The program will focus on identifying community-specific barriers to vaccination and adapting local solutions to reduce these barriers and enhance enablers to vaccination uptake – ensuring the approach is driven by community needs and values.

Access barriers, low awareness and vaccine hesitancy continue to impact immunisation rates in Papua New Guinea. To tackle this, the program will run social mobilisation and ideation sessions in the target districts. These sessions will inform how vaccine communication training can be tailored specifically for local community and health leaders. Using a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach, experienced individuals will be empowered to share their knowledge across communities – creating a ripple effect of vaccine champions.

The ARIA-funded component of the project (made possible by RISE-2 Australian Government funding), will undertake implementation research to evaluate the impact of the training program. Researchers will assess whether the adapted Vaccine Champion Plus training model improves routine vaccination coverage for children under 12 months of age who are under-vaccinated and who have not received any vaccination (i.e.  zero-dose children) in the target areas compared with current standard practices. The evaluation will also document the process of adapting the program for the Papua New Guinean context.

This work underscores the power of local solutions and community leadership in boosting immunisation coverage – particularly in regions where the number of zero-dose children remains high. By fostering trust, improving communication and equipping leaders with the tools to support their communities, the Vaccine Champion Plus program is paving the way for more children in Papua New Guinea to access life-saving vaccines.

Project lead: Ms Milena Dalton and Dr Delly Babona, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Victoria.