The State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination

• 25 Apr 2023

On April 20, 2023, UNICEF India released its global flagship report, 'The State of the World's Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination’.

• The report highlighted the significance of childhood immunization.
• According to this report, India is one of only three countries where confidence in children's vaccines has increased.
• India was able to arrest the backslide and bring down the number of zero-dose children to 2.7 million, which represents a smaller proportion of India's under-5 child population given its size and the world's largest birth cohort.
• The report also highlights the decline in vaccine confidence in over a third of the studied countries due to various factors, including access to misleading information and declining trust in vaccine efficacy.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the largest sustained backslide in childhood immunization in 30 years, with 67 million children missing out on vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, and vaccination coverage levels decreasing in 112 countries.
• The report also highlights existing inequities in vaccination coverage, with unvaccinated children often living in hard-to-reach communities such as rural areas or urban slums, and mothers who have been unable to attend school.
• The report emphasizes that routine immunizations and strong health systems are essential for preventing future pandemics and reducing morbidity and mortality, and reaching the last child with immunization is a key marker of equity that benefits the whole community.