Immunization is, and should be recognized as, a core component of the human right to health and an individual, community and governmental responsibility. Vaccination prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths each year. Protected from the threat of vaccine-preventable diseases, immunized children have the opportunity to thrive and a better chance of realizing their full potential

In the last 10 years, great advances have been made in developing and introducing new vaccines and expanding the reach of immunization programmes. More people than ever before are being vaccinated and access and use of vaccines by age groups other than infants is expanding.

Despite this progress, vaccine-preventable diseases remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Adoption of new vaccines by low- and middle-income countries (where disease burdens are often the highest) has been slower than in high-income countries.

One factor that has become increasingly important to vaccination coverage is vaccine hesitancy that results in the delay or refusal of vaccinations, ranging from a delay in acceptance of one or more offered vaccines to complete refusal of all vaccinations in the immunization programme.

Based on the concerns about hesitancy and its impact on vaccine uptake rates and the performance of national immunization programs, WHO SAGE established the Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy in March 2012 to carry out a thorough review and propose recommendations on how to address vaccine hesitancy and its determinants.

International Pediatric Association (IPA) has launched IPA Vaccine Hesitancy Project with the goal, to reduce vaccine hesitancy in communities, disseminate the “value of vaccination” (VoV), increase demand for immunization, and to help reach the targets of the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),

The International Pediatric Association (IPA) is a 107 years old umbrella organization of one million pediatricians of the world taking care of more than one billion children agrees that pediatricians can play a key role in strengthening trust in immunization systems and ensuring services are appropriate, understood and accepted by communities making them more likely to be used sustainably. Pediatricians will be good source as they will help to communicate the value of vaccines and help identify, and sometimes correct the myths and miscommunication ingrained in the community about vaccine uptake.