Enhancing the Use of Economic Evidence in Vaccine Policy-Making in Africa

African countries are running out of money to pay for vaccines, and this project will help them decide which shots to buy with the limited funds they have left. The problem is a looming financial squeeze. For years, the global vaccine alliance Gavi has covered most of the cost of immunisation in low-income African nations. But Gavi is now phasing out its support, forcing countries like Kenya, Zambia, and Nigeria to shoulder the bill themselves. These governments face a stark choice: they cannot afford every vaccine on the market, so they must pick the ones that deliver the most health benefit per pound spent. Currently, they lack the local data and tools to make those decisions rigorously. This project will fill that gap. Researchers will develop country-specific "value sets" that measure health improvements in a standardised way—called quality-adjusted life years (QALYs)—so that cost-effectiveness calculations reflect local realities rather than imported assumptions. They will then model which vaccines offer the best value for money in each of the three countries, and work directly with policymakers to embed that economic evidence into national immunisation strategies. If successful, the research will not create new vaccines or cure diseases. Instead, it will quietly change how health budgets are spent—shifting limited public money toward the vaccines that save the most lives per shilling, naira, or kwacha.