The Gambia is stepping up efforts to ensure that every child, including those who missed routine vaccinations during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, receives protection against life-threatening diseases as the country strengthens its national immunisation programme with support from Gavi and other global health partners.
Recent nationwide vaccination campaigns have delivered hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses to children, while expanded monitoring and community outreach are helping health authorities identify families and communities that may have been left behind.
The progress was highlighted during a recent Gavi mission to The Gambia, where members of the delegation joined officials from the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and other partners in visiting Serekunda Health Centre.
The delegation met families and frontline health workers and observed how routine immunisation services are being strengthened to protect children and communities from vaccine-preventable diseases.
For Haruna Darboe, a first-time father, the impact of the programme is personal. He watched closely as a health worker weighed his three-month-old daughter before she received her routine vaccinations.
For him, the clinic visit represented more than a standard medical appointment. It was reassurance that he was taking an important step towards protecting his child from potentially life-threatening illnesses.
Vaccination efforts in The Gambia are also extending protection to mothers before their children are born.
During a routine antenatal care visit, expectant mother Oumou Trawally received vaccines designed to protect both her and her unborn baby.
“Getting vaccinated during pregnancy gives me confidence that I am protecting myself and my baby,” she said. “It is one of the first things I can do to ensure my child has a healthy start in life.”
However, like many countries, The Gambia experienced disruptions to routine immunisation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving some children without essential doses.
In response, the Ministry of Health, through the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), intensified efforts to identify and vaccinate children who had missed routine services, with support from Gavi and development partners.
Between January 2025 and March 2026, six nationwide rounds of Periodic Intensified Routine Immunization were conducted across the country.
The campaigns delivered more than 103,000 doses of pentavalent vaccine, 76,000 doses of measles-rubella vaccine and 108,000 doses of oral polio vaccine to children nationwide.
“The numbers tell an important story, but they do not tell the whole story,” said Dr Oumie Jagne, WHO’s Global Polio Eradication and Immunization Officer in The Gambia.
“Behind every child vaccinated is a family protected from the devastating consequences of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Health workers say the strengthened programme is also improving the ability of facilities to track children who miss vaccination appointments.
At Serekunda Health Centre, health worker Ebrima Jawara said improved planning, monitoring and community engagement were helping health teams reach more families.
“We are seeing improvements in how we identify children who miss appointments and how we engage communities,” he said. “Parents are becoming more aware of the importance of vaccination, and health workers have received support to improve planning, monitoring and follow-up.”
Nationwide monitoring has also helped authorities identify remaining gaps. WHO teams visited 4,311 households and assessed 3,913 children, providing health officials with information needed to target communities where vaccination coverage may still be uneven.
The country is also expanding protection beyond early childhood.In 2026, The Gambia delivered 47,208 doses of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to adolescent girls, recording 108.7 percent coverage and strengthening efforts to protect future generations against cervical cancer.
The government has also conducted a comprehensive review of its Expanded Programme on Immunisation, assessed its Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination status, updated its National Immunization Policy and implemented the Big Catch Up initiative to reach zero-dose and chronically missed children.
As The Gambia prepares for the next phase of Gavi 6.0 support for 2026–2030, sustaining the progress will require continued investment in community engagement, health-worker capacity, follow-up systems and reliable health data.
For families across the country, however, the impact is measured not only in vaccination statistics but in the confidence that children are being given a healthier and safer start in life.
