Communities around the world have experienced HPV vaccination initiatives differently. While some have accepted vaccination programs and their scale-up, others have faced issues along the way. How these issues are addressed at community levels and later in public policy often determines the ongoing success of the vaccine initiative. This presentation will be part of the session “Identifying and Overcoming Communication Challenges.”
A review of vaccine initiative experiences in India, Japan and the United States focused on: 1) the identification of challenges and issues, 2) the response to them by sponsors or government partners, 3) community engagement with issues and solution identification, 4) the public health policy changes related to HPV vaccination.
While top-down government support is important for success, community support is just as critical and can often be missed by program planners and policy partners at the mobilization stage. Various constructions of stakeholders and community partners exist, and do not necessarily involve individuals and groups who often experience the problems before planners might. A huge opportunity is risk communication planning, which must happen at the outset of planning and involve partners from across the spectrum of participation. Policies attempting to mitigate emerging issues are often initiated because issues were not addressed well initially.
Countries considering HPV vaccination campaigns or scale up are encouraged to engage not only implementation partners, but members of the community and especially groups that are wary of the effort.