Experts at a seminar called for a comprehensive study to find out the linkages between health and poverty and the factors that negatively influenced health sector outcomes. The seminar titled ‘Poverty and the Social Impact of the Expanded Programme for Immunisation in Pakistan’ was organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). “Immunisation is the most cost effective health intervention against preventable diseases affecting the poor sections of society,” said the experts. They stressed on researchers to identify gaps with empirical evidences and recommendations for policy-makers to improve the health situation in the country. They also talked about the very low percentage of birth registration and vaccination card recall in Pakistan and said the polio campaign must be initiated from households.
They also demanded that vaccination cards be made mandatory for admissions in schools at the kindergarten level and proposed to link polio campaign with incentives for people.
SDPI Research Fellow Dr Vaqar Ahmed said the stakeholders’ consultation was aimed to carry out institutional analysis, gauge expectation of stakeholders from the poverty and social perspectives and identify issues to discuss with the provincial administrations of the Extended Programme on Immunisation (EPI). Poverty Reduction Strategy Monitoring Joint Secretary and National Project Manager Sajjad Shaikh gave a detailed account of the various social impact analyses carried out in Pakistan. He said Pakistan prepared its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in 2001 and was the first country in 2003 to be accepted for IMF’s ‘Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF)’. Pakistan Institute of Development Economics’ Dr Sofia Ahmed highlighted the current crisis in immunisation and shared the methodology of the proposed study to analyse the impact of the immunisation programme in Pakistan.
She identified several gaps in the already limited literature available, such as the lack of empirical analysis, regional differences in the impact of EPI, impact of floods/terrorism, political and cultural factors. During the discussion, the participants deliberated on the relevance, objectives, ground realities, cost effectiveness and sustainability of any baseline study on the subject.