BLOG SURF
KATHMANDU, APRIL 04
As countries undertake the world's largest vaccination drive, the innovation, expertise, and community reach of civil society organisations should be a key component. The remarkable breakthrough with COVID-19 vaccines has raised hopes for saving lives and accelerating the much-needed social and economic recovery around the world. But success will depend on the transparency, speed, coverage, and equity of the roll-out of vaccination programs.
Given the unprecedented scale of this undertaking this will be extremely challenging. A key but previously underutilised set of actors can step in to alleviate the burden: civil society organizations.
Governments should collaborate with civil society organisations to undertake the historic task of vaccinating whole populations.
Models for civil society organization collaboration with governments and donors exist at local and national levels and can be scaled up to improve vaccination campaigns. Civil society organisations have begun supporting governments' COVID response programs.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 5, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
