Johannesburg – Sanofi and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have announced that they are partnering to improve access to childhood immunisation in three Eastern Cape districts.
The partnership focuses on children who have not received, or have not completed, their routine vaccines.
In a joint statement at the weekend, the partners sai they will help district teams use local immunisation data to identify low-coverage areas, track children who miss appointments, and respond faster when services fail to reach communities.
The programme runs from July 2026 to March 2027, beginning with meetings involving national and provincial health authorities, followed by healthcare worker training, mentoring and ongoing supervision.
“The Immunisation for Every Child programme will support district health teams and healthcare facilities in OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Amathole,” the statement said.
“Working with the National and Eastern Cape Departments of Health, the partners will use the WHO’s Reaching Every District (RED) strategy to close immunisation gaps and reach missed children.
“RED aims for immunisation coverage of at least 80% in every district and 90% nationally.”
The programme comes as South Africa works to reverse declines in childhood immunisation coverage and close persistent gaps in access to routine immunisation.
The latest WHO and UNICEF estimates show national coverage for the first dose of the DTP vaccine — commonly used to measure access to routine immunisation — fell from 87% in 2019 to 67% in 2025.
Third-dose coverage declined from 85% to 65% over the same period.
This means around one in three infants in South Africa may not have received a first routine DTP-containing vaccine in 2025, with an even greater proportion not completing the three-dose course.
WHO and UNICEF note the figures rely largely on administrative data and may not capture all immunisations provided by the private sector.
“Every child should have access to routine vaccines, regardless of where they live or their family’s circumstances,” said Jean-Baptiste Bregeon, Country Lead for Sanofi South Africa.
“This partnership will help local health teams find children who have been missed and build the capacity needed to protect them.
“It reflects Sanofi’s commitment to improving healthcare access in underserved communities.”
Finding children missed by routine services
The programme focuses on zero-dose children — defined by WHO and UNICEF as children who have not received a first DTP-containing vaccine — as well as children who started but did not complete their immunisation schedule.²
“Every child missed by routine immunisation represents a child left unnecessarily vulnerable to preventable disease,” said Johannes Wedenig, UNICEF Representative in South Africa.
“While immunisation coverage varies across South Africa, district averages can mask communities where children are still being missed.
“Our focus on OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Amathole will allow us to work with health teams to identify these gaps, understand why children are being missed and strengthen services to reach them.”
RED focuses on five areas: restoring outreach services, supporting and supervising healthcare workers, building community links, using data to guide action, and improving local planning and resource management.
WHO reports RED contributed to an increase in third-dose DTP coverage across Africa from 57% in 2000 to 80% in 2014.
Support embedded in district health teams
Three RED strategy consultants will work within the selected districts, providing practical support and mentoring to district teams and healthcare facilities.
They will help facilities improve microplanning, map communities, identify children who have missed immunisations, and plan targeted outreach with affected communities.
Activities will take place at provincial, district, facility and community levels, including healthcare worker training, supportive supervision, stakeholder engagement, advocacy and quality improvement.
By strengthening health worker skills, improving use of local data, and working with communities to understand and overcome barriers to vaccination, the partnership aims to help health teams find missed children and build stronger routine immunisation services that continue beyond the funded period.
Lessons from the programme will also help inform approaches to closing immunisation gaps elsewhere in South Africa.
