Resources

USAID-supported Swasti's Covid Action Collaborative (CAC) works towards facilitating collaborative action to accelerate reach to unvaccinated vulnerable individuals and communities and a resilient health system. The CAC team met the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) team in September 2020 to discuss the possibility of a partnership. CAC was in the midst of their VaxNow initiative, which aimed to accelerate vaccinations for vulnerable communities and get 10 million people vaccinated and hoped to get CII on board as a partner to augment our existing efforts. CII has the convening power as well as the intellectual and financial capital needed to help take CAC’s work to all pockets of the country. CII was already doing a lot of work in vaccine supply, resource mobilization, and implementation and CAC saw value in joining forces to amplify impact. Both organizations decided to sign an MOU which is in the final stages of authorization and will cover the following:

(1) At the system level, where there is inadequate vaccine supply in certain identified locations and organizations working in and around silos;

(2) At the community level, where there is a lack of motivation within local communities; and

(3) At the individual level, where there is a reluctance to take the vaccine and there is no navigation support for taking the vaccine.

The partnership has already resulted in the rollout of a pilot in Assam with CAC Partner FXB India Suraksha to inoculate 6000 people in hard-to-reach and unreached pockets of the state. This private sector engagement with CII will help provide support and funding to accelerate demand generation and community mobilization in Assam. The funds provided will help FXB work with communities to overcome vaccine hesitancy and ensure double dose coverage. Similar projects are in the pipeline for other parts of the country.