As Ethiopia continues scaling up its national COVID-19 vaccination campaign, public health specialists emphasized the challenge of reaching households in remote and underserved communities. Among the key figures shaping the government’s strategy was Michael Mekbib, a monitoring and evaluation advisor with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), who has been instrumental in designing and coordinating data-driven approaches to strengthen vaccination delivery.
In line with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health’s nationwide effort, supported by WHO, UNICEF, the U.S. CDC, Gavi, and several humanitarian organizations, to effectively deploy doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Sinopharm vaccines, Mekbib advanced the initiative with precision. According to officials familiar with the rollout, one of the major obstacles early in the campaign was inconsistent access in rural districts and delays in field reporting that made it difficult to track vaccination progress.
These obstacles were addressed. Mekbib developed a structured field strategy that vaccinators use when engaging families across urban centers, peri-urban zones, and remote districts. The stepwise model helps health teams with community mobilization, getting people involved in their homes, planning outreach, and keeping track of doses given in real time.
Beyond strategy design, Mekbib led the deployment of a DHIS2-based digital monitoring system across more than 1,000 districts. The system is different from other electronic platforms like Open Data Kit (ODK) because it provides a central place to record vaccinations, keep track of stock levels, and find areas with low coverage. Health workers report that the digital tools have allowed them to flag supply needs earlier, improve redistribution of doses, and reduce the risk of stockouts in high-volume areas.
Throughout the vaccination campaign, Mekbib’s coordination has supported the delivery of over 60 million COVID-19 vaccine doses nationwide. Program managers confirm that real-time data guided weekly planning sessions, enabling rapid adjustments to outreach routes and minimizing the potential for vaccine wastage. In rural districts where transportation delays posed risks to dose viability, Mekbib’s team used live dashboard feeds to redirect vaccinators and accelerate distribution before expiration windows were reached.
For hard-to-reach areas, he emphasized inter-agency coordination, ensuring that community health teams, supervisors, and logistics partners communicated through unified reporting channels. This structure helped vaccination teams arrive on schedule with age-appropriate doses for both adults and adolescents.
His contributions have also received regional recognition. Mekbib was invited to represent Ethiopia at the Africa Delivery Exchange (ADX), a continental forum where government leaders, donors, and technical experts examine practical solutions for improving health service delivery. Participants described his insights on digital monitoring and rural accessibility as “highly relevant to current vaccination challenges across the region.”
As Ethiopia advances its vaccination campaign, Mekbib maintains that sustainable progress depends on continued investment in digital tools, data-driven planning, and coordinated field operations. He notes that these systems not only improve vaccination accuracy but also equip health workers with the information needed to protect families during future public health emergencies.
