The Ministry of Health oversees the Māori Influenza and Measles Vaccination Programme (MIMVP) and provides funding to providers around the country for initiatives designed to boost Māori influenza and measles vaccination rates.
This evaluation assesses the contribution of MIMVP to increasing Māori flu vaccination and equity rates in 2021, identifying which initiatives worked and what could be improved in future.
This report finds that MIMVP made a valuable and worthwhile contribution to Māori health equity. While the overall flu vaccination rates and equity rates were lower than 2020, the rates achieved were still a notable improvement on 2019 and previous years. In addition, providers built on the learnings and capacity developed through MIVP 2020, applied these strategies to their COVID-19 activities as relevant, and new relationships and ways of working emerged.
The report makes a series of recommendations around how immunisation and vaccination rates could be further booster, some of which are being addressed by the establishment of the Maori Health Agency. In particular, the report recommends:
- elevating a whānau-centred, holistic approach as essential for Māori health equity
- affirming Māori health providers as crucial to engaging with Māori in the pursuit of equity
- highlighting Māori provider-led service design as critical within a whānau-centred approach
- identifying the need for the Ministry, HNZ and MHA to develop the capacity to engage, contract and fund Māori health providers directly.