An EPI Partners meeting was held at EPI Conference room on 26, January 2017. The objective of the meeting was;

• Status and achievements in EPI service delivery
• Data Management gaps (vLMIS)
• Partner support for surveillance
• Future Plant Support & Coordination

The meeting was chaired by Dr. Agha Ashfaq, Manager EPI Sindh. The meeting was attended by Additional Secretary Health, Fayyaz Jatoi EOC Coordinator, and representatives of USAID, TVI, RSPN, Gates Foundation, GAVI and other technical personnel.PP Masood Bhalli represented Rotary International.

Dr. Aga Asfaq welcomed all participants and presented a brief of current immunization status in Sindh. He said during the year 2016 we made tremendous achievements to cover more children. The significant success is approval of PC-1.

The technical partners from GAVI, USAID and vLMIS gave their short presentations. It was informed that micro plans have been computerized at UC level. District validation has been completed, Provincial Vaccine Management Committee conducting quarterly meeting on regular basis.

The chair pointed out shortage of cold chain equipment. He thanked Rotary for arranging 19 ILRs for EPI Sindh and providing 15,000Vaccine Carriers.

The Chair elaborated require support from partners in following areas;

• Human Resources
• Service delivery
• Surveillance, Monitoring & Reporting, Cold Chain,
• Communication
• Data Management

To query from PP Masood Bhalli, Dr Agha Ashfaq stated that annually 10% increase in coverage is contemplated and it is a five year plan. PP Masood Bhalli showed his reservation on 42% RI coverage and suggested faster coverage.

The Additional secretary also pointed out this low performance and said that there is immense need to improve routine immunization in the province.

The meeting ended with commitment of all partners for their support. The chair thanked all participants for their participation.