FARID

Some of the most difficult places in the world to provide health services are those suffering from conflict, instability and limited capacity. This is especially critical for children under 5, pregnant people and nursing mothers living in access-compromised areas where public health services are scarce or non-existent.

Traditional health solution systems may be unable to reach these inaccessible areas for various physical, economic or political reasons. In other cases, these operations may be seen as too high-risk for full implementation, leaving those most vulnerable behind in positive global health progress.

The Far-Reaching Integrated Delivery (FARID) programme aims to reach children and vulnerable groups in access-compromised areas with vaccines and other survival interventions through an integrated health service delivery model that includes fixed health sites, mobile health camps and outreach by bringing together non-traditional Global Polio Eradication Initiative actors. 

Funded by the Gates Foundation, this programme is a collaboration between the WFP Innovation Accelerator, Core Group Partners Project, Save the Children, Humanitarian Dialogue, Health-E-Net, PATH, HISP Tanzania, GAVI, DEH, ZamZam Foundation, Wardi Relief, Vision Corps Initiative, the University of Geneva, the Somalia Ministry of Health and McKing Consulting.

The WFP Innovation Accelerator SDGx team convenes these partners and supports the development of unique operational design, applying the principles of human-centred design to create an innovative model that responds to the challenges of serving access-compromised areas.

Since its inception in 2023, FaRID has delivered over 18,000 health camps and established 35 fixed sites in 20 districts in Somalia.

Through these, FaRID has provided over 2.1million healthcare consultations to under-served and previously inaccessible populations in the following outputs: 637,000 vaccination touchpoints, 317,000 maternal health services, 771,000 general medicine support and 436,000 nutrition services.

As a result, over 173,000 zero-dose children received their first essential vaccinations and over 105,000 under-vaccinated children are now fully vaccinated with PENTA, OPV and BCG, protecting them against tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, Hepatitis B, diseases caused by Hib bacteria and polio.

The FARID partners plan to iterate and roll out a sustainable version of the healthcare service delivery model to standardize the model and assess different sustainability strategies to re-establish the health system in access-compromised areas with key stakeholders.