This week, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) joins the international community in celebrating World Immunization Week. This year’s theme, “Close the Immunization Gap: Immunization for All throughout Life,” spotlights the inequities that persist in vaccination coverage rates. One in five children does not receive the vaccines that he or she needs, representing inequalities in coverage between and within countries.

At USAID, we work in priority countries to expand and strengthen immunization services. Our work with partners across sectors and across the globe recognizes vaccines as one of the smartest investments that we can make to improve health outcomes in communities worldwide. Recent studies report that for every $1 invested in immunization, $16 is saved in averted health care costs. 

• Last year, the U.S. Government made an historic pledge to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which brings new and underutilized vaccines to the world’s poorest countries. With USAID’s support, Gavi will immunize an additional 300 million children and save 5 million lives by 2020.
• USAID works to strengthen national routine immunization systems by developing sound immunization policies, strategies, and guidelines; improving supply chains and information management systems; and engaging ministers of health and finance to ensure the sustainability of national immunization systems.
• In collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF, the CORE Group Polio Project, and other partners, USAID works toward polio eradication through a wide range of supporting activities. Since the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, polio cases have been reduced by more than 99 percent.

Together with our partners around the globe, USAID is working to close the immunization gap. 

Learn more

• Read USAID’s Katie Taylor’s blog on “Saving Lives Today, Saving Costs Tomorrow: Why USAID Invests in Immunization.”
• Check out this infographic [PDF, 201KB] on the importance of routine immunization for achieving global goals in health.
• Learn more about USAID’s work on immunization [PDF, 528KB] and maternal and child health.
• Learn how India mobilized to eliminate polio.

Photo credit: Amy Fowler/USAID