According to "Our World Data" the percentage of Turkey's population who are fully and partly vaccinated are 49.08% and 12.65%, respectively by September 2021, indicating that there is a need to boost the vaccination efforts.
This research aims to identify the challenges and solutions for a sustainable mobile vaccination system to improve the social welfare of all residents in Turkey. This project will help design a mobile vaccination program to address this challenge and reach full vaccination, especially refugees, disabled and poor in rural areas. Therefore, a critical short to medium term impact of this study will be to minimise the economic cost of vaccination and maximise fairness in allocating the limited mobile resources available thereby achieving SDG 10, which promotes equality within and among countries.
Optimal planning for mobile vaccination will reduce substantial costs and most importantly, can save lives, especially in rural areas. A mobile vaccination system will help reach vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, disabled, or low-income subgroups, who may find it difficult to visit fixed vaccination centers due to health-related/physical or financial constraints. We believe that through effective planning for mobile vaccination, the vaccination rate would increase drastically in the short term. Evidence-based tools and solutions for policy-makers and practitioners based on the latest scientific and empirical evidence will be designed.
The theme of this capacity building project fits within the ‘Health’ thematic priority area as the focus of this project is Covid-19 vaccination. A large number of vaccination centers have been launched in Turkey as well as in the UK. Most of these centres, however, are situated in facilities at fixed and require people to travel far to receive a jab. That raises an unnecessary barrier, especially the disadvantaged social groups (e.g., the refugees, disabled and poor) from getting vaccinated. The project has set out a proposal designed to undertake an ambitious collaborative research capacity building activity between 明星八卦 University and , which will lead to the design of tools to arrive at fair and effective vaccination plans for COVID-19. The aim of the project is to build a strong research team involving academics in the UK and Turkey, that will conduct collaborative research by engaging with various stakeholders and formulate managerial and policy implications for effective vaccination program.
There are four main stakeholders our project aims to engage with, which will consist of research institutions in both Turkey and the UK, policymakers in Turkey and the health industry including both public, i.e., Ministry of Health, NHS and private businesses.
The aim is to engage various stakeholders to advance the economic and social impacts of the project in the short to medium term period. By engaging Turkish businesses and government bodies e.g. Ministry of Health, we aim to offer research that will help to minimize the economic cost and maximise fairness in people’s access to vaccine resources. This extends to stakeholders involved in providing vaccine facilities, to ensure the prioritization of COVID-19 centres. Additionally, we aim to engage the Turkish Ministry of Health to ensure our study contributes towards reducing the spread of COVID-19 through efficient vaccination. Finally, we aim to engage research bodies both in the UK and Turkey to promote the usage of mobile vaccination to effectively reach out to vulnerable social groups.