UNICEF supports COVID-19 vaccination in Azerbaijan
By Laman Ismayilova
UNICEF is pleased to work closely with the Ministry of Health and the Azerbaijan Medical Association to support the preparation for the COVID-19 vaccination program, which is expected to be the largest vaccination initiative in Azerbaijan.
Experts from the Ministry's Innovation and Procurement Center and TABIB participated in an online training for procurement specialists organized by UNICEF's Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia.
The course covered topics such as procurement planning and demand forecasting, procurement financing and procurement budgeting, as well as ways to increase the efficiency of the procurement process.
The knowledge gained by the participants will now be used to train more specialists across the country.
This will help Azerbaijan in planning and budgeting for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines and their associated cold chains, as well as other supplies.
UNICEF is leading the procurement and delivery of new coronavirus vaccines for 92 countries as part of COVAX, a global mechanism for procuring new vaccines against COVID-19.
For more than 25 years UNICEF has been working with the government and people of Azerbaijan to provide every child with the best start to life.
Its activities began during some of the country’s most difficult times, assisting refugees and internally displaced people from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and addressing the impact of economic hardships caused by the transition from the Soviet power to independence in 1991.
UNICEF now strives to build on the considerable progress Azerbaijan has made, economically and socially, over the last two decades. Poverty rates have dramatically decreased, child mortality rates have fallen, and primary school enrollment is almost universal.
The organization focuses its attention on those children who have not fully benefited from such advances. UNICEF works alongside the government, communities and families in Azerbaijan to reach out to those children who remain vulnerable or at risk, to initiate new approaches to child and youth development, and to strengthen the national capacities and systems that support children and families.
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