The EVIDA Initiative: Strengthening Evidence-informed Vaccine and Immunization Decision-making and Appraisal in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

The EVIDA Initiative of the WHO Regional office of the Americas (PAHO) is a 3-year proposed scope of work to 1) support NITAGs and national immunization programs (NIPs) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to formulate, establish, and implement EIDM on policies for vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs); and 2) translate learnings and tools developed regarding vaccine and immunization decision-support to the African context in collaboration with WHO AFRO. EVIDA will build capacity for immunization- related research, knowledge translation, and policy monitoring and evaluation, to achieve the following specific aims in LAC and, in partnership with WHO HQ and other stakeholders, extend the benefits of this initiative to Africa: 1 – Strengthen and formalize the establishment and composition of NITAGs to provide credible and contextually relevant immunization EIDM recommendations to ministries of health 2 – Improve the capacity of ministries of health and NITAGs to generate, systematically synthesize, and use evidence to inform immunization-related policies and decisions 3 – Build sustainable regional scientific networks primarily for LMIC NITAGs and ministries of health to exchange research, administrative and procedural best practices, and lessons learned regarding policy implementation to provide real-time knowledge sharing between countries and improved vaccine EIDM.