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. 2024 Sep 17;42(22):126005.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.05.053. Epub 2024 May 27.

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

Eliza Dryer  1 , Abigail Shefer  2 , Shalini Desai  3 , Lance Rodewald  4 , Magdalena Bastías  5 , Nathalie El Omeiri  6 , Sidy Ndiaye  7 , Kori Cook  8 , Louise Henaff  9 , Erin Kennedy  10
Affiliations

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

Eliza Dryer et al. Vaccine. .

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: Evaluation; Evidence-based recommendations; Health system strengthening; Immunization policy; NITAG.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Indicator 3 scoring rubric for a hypothetical NITAG which has met the Leading Edge criteria for the secured funding sub-indicator, the Advanced criteria for the data access sub-indicator, and the Intermediate criteria for the technical expertise and secretariat support sub-indicators. The overall maturity level for Indicator 3 is Intermediate, reflecting the highest level of maturity met for all sub-indicators.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Indicator 3 scoring rubric for a hypothetical NITAG, showing Intermediate maturity. The prioritized actions are those that would allow the NITAG to meet all criteria for each sub-indicator at Advanced, the next level of maturity.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Iterative Evaluation and Strengthening Process Using NMAT.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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