Development of a maturity assessment tool to evaluate and strengthen National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs)

Authors

Eliza Dryer
Abigail Shefer
Shalini Desai
Lance Rodewald
Magdalena Bastías
Nathalie El Omeiri
Sidy Ndiaye
Kori Cook
Louise Henaff
Erin Kennedy

Language

English

Publication Date

9-17-2024

Journal

Vaccine

DOI

10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.05.053

PMID

38802292

PMCID

PMC11371511

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-17-2024

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

As dozens of new National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) were established worldwide in the past decade, and as existing NITAGs continued to play an important role in vaccine policy, global NITAG partners recognized a need for a standardized assessment tool to evaluate and strengthen their functions. This article describes the development of the NITAG Maturity Assessment Tool (NMAT), a stepwise evaluation tool that assesses NITAGs on seven key indicators of structure and process. A draft tool was developed through an iterative, consensus-based process with an expert working group before it was piloted with an economically and geographically diverse convenience sample of NITAGs. The final NMAT is a flexible tool that can be used by in-country or external evaluators to understand NITAG maturity, identify priorities for optimization, and measure the impact of strengthening efforts.

Keywords

Humans, Advisory Committees, Immunization Programs, Vaccines, Health Policy, Immunization, Vaccination, Global Health, NITAG, Immunization policy, Evidence-based recommendations, Health system strengthening, Evaluation

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Dryer, Eliza; Shefer, Abigail; Desai, Shalini; et al., "Development of a maturity assessment tool to evaluate and strengthen National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs)" (2024). Staff and Researcher Publications. 37.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/clinic_pub/37