The Sultan Foundation on Sunday concluded onboarding 334 routine immunisation service providers and called for stronger action to tackle the zero-dose challenge among children in Zamfara.

The one-day onboarding was conducted in four phases in collaboration with the Zamfara government under the Z-TRACE project.

The 334 participants comprised 313 routine immunisation service providers and 21 LGA team leads, CBO and LGA monitoring and evaluation officers.

The exercise aimed at identifying, tracking and vaccinating zero-dose and under-immunised children across seven selected local government areas.

The foundation is implementing the Z-TRACE project, which targets 80,772 children, representing 30 per cent of the 269,421 zero-dose and unimmunised children in Gusau, Talata-Mafara, Bakura, Shinkafi, Anka, Zurmi and Tsafe LGAs.

Speaking at the close of the exercise, the state programme officer of the Sultan Foundation, Jamilu Sarkin-Gulbi, said the training was designed to clarify the responsibilities of RI service providers and strengthen coordination between health facilities, community mobilisers, and local government authorities.

He said the onboarding brought together RI service providers, Z-TRACE local government coordinators, community-based organisation representatives, M&E officers and other stakeholders, including the leadership of the Zamfara Primary Health Care Management Board.

According to him, the exercise is necessary to strengthen collaboration between community-based organisations and health workers, particularly in identifying children who have never received routine immunisation or have missed scheduled vaccine doses.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi emphasised the importance of accurate data collection and reporting, which he said remained critical to measuring the project’s success.

He said every child identified and vaccinated must be properly documented, validated and submitted through established reporting channels into the District Health Information Software (DHIS2).

The programme officer urged officials to ensure accurate documentation and reporting so government and development partners can assess the project’s impact. He said the foundation had established mechanisms to track the activities of community mobilisers and RI service providers using the Open Data Kit (ODK) platform.

According to him, the M&E team provides weekly feedback to community-based organisations to strengthen accountability and ensure identified children are followed up until vaccinated.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi added that the foundation was collaborating with relevant immunisation monitoring structures, including the ACASUS team, to monitor delivery of planned immunisation sessions.

He said community mobilisers were expected to hold weekly reconciliation meetings with RI providers to confirm the availability of health workers and ensure scheduled sessions take place.

The programme officer called on participants to maintain effective collaboration and demonstrate commitment to achieving the objectives of the Z-TRACE project.

Mr Sarkin-Gulbi also appealed to the media to intensify public awareness on routine immunisation, particularly on the dangers of diphtheria and other preventable diseases.

The Z-TRACE project is being implemented by the Sultan Foundation for Peace and Development with funding support from GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, to strengthen community engagement and improve routine immunisation coverage.

Other partners supporting the initiative include New Incentives, ACASUS, the Gates Foundation, Solina and the media, alongside relevant state and local government health structures.

(NAN)