One Shot, Long Life!
One shot, Long Life! is a podcast focused on The Global Health Advocacy Incubator's (GHAI) and its partner CSOs' Immunization Budget Advocacy program, aiming to boost advocacy for domestic funding and accountability to reach zero-dose children and improve immunization coverage across many low- and middle-income countries. Through conversational interviews, it seeks to elevate thought leadership and foster knowledge exchange among policymakers, donors, and health officials to strengthen immunization efforts in low- and middle-income countries.
One Shot, Long Life!
Episode 11: How the Media Defends Immunization Financing in Nigeria and Kenya
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As Gavi support winds down in Nigeria by 2028 and Kenya by 2029, governments must pay more of the vaccine bill themselves. Approvals do not always become releases. Funds stall, vaccines stop moving and children get missed. The press sees it first.
In this episode of One Shot, Long Life, the immunization financing podcast from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), host Abel Akara Ticha turns the microphone toward the press. He is joined by two award-winning health journalists: Racheal Abujah, public health editor at the News Agency of Nigeria, and Pauline Achieng Tom, an independent journalist who also contributes to Gavi's VaccinesWork from Nairobi. Together they follow vaccine money from budget line to cold chain, hold federal, state and county leaders accountable and counter misinformation without amplifying it.
Quick FAQ:
Why does vaccine financing need media scrutiny? Because money decides whether a vaccine reaches a child. Kenya left a US$12.4 million Gavi co-financing bill unpaid in 2025, and stockouts hit 12 counties (Daily Nation).
Does immunization pay off? Yes. Every US$1 invested returns about US$52, and vaccines have saved 154 million lives in 50 years (WHO — https://www.who.int/news/item/24-04-2024-global-immunization-efforts-have-saved-at-least-154-million-lives-over-the-past-50-yearsand The Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)00850-X/fulltext).
What keeps these stories alive? Following the full budget cycle, not the news cycle.
Listen now to understand how independent journalism keeps immunization financing honest, and keeps every child in reach, across Africa and Asia.