Proportion of countries reporting district-level stockouts
Data type:
Proportion
Topic:
Cold chain and logistics
Vaccines and immunization
Rationale:
Secure high-quality supply chains for vaccines and related commodities and effective vaccine management, within the primary health care supply system
Definition:
Proportion of countries reporting a district-level stockout of any vaccine at any time during the reporting year.
Associated terms:
Stock out refers to a period when storage and distribution points (e.g. national, subnational and district stores) are completely depleted of stock (including buffer stock) that they cannot supply lower stores or facilities.
District stores are lower-level distribution points that receive vaccines from a primary level or a subnational store and supply vaccines to one or more health facilities that deliver immunization services.
Buffer (safety) stock is a planned quantity of vaccines held in addition to expected requirements, established to protect the supply system against uncertainties in demand, lead time, or supply disruptions, and to prevent stock outs.
Disaggregation:
Global and by WHO region per year
Method of measurement
National immunization programme
Method of estimation:
Numerator (N): Number of countries that experienced ≥1 district level stock out of any vaccine during the reporting year
• If at least one vaccine has “Yes” for district level stock out at any time during the year, flag the country as 1
• If all vaccines = “No”, flag as 0
Denominator (D): Total number of eJRF reporting countries for the year
• Include all countries that submitted data for the reporting year on the district-level vaccine stock outs
• Exclude countries with no submission/missing (ND) for all vaccines
Percentage of countries with district level stock out (%) = N / D×100
Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
Unweighted proportion
Preferred data sources:
WHO/UNICEF Joint Reporting Form on Immunization (JRF)
Unit of Measure:
Proportion
Unit Multiplier:
N/A
Expected frequency of data collection:
Annual
Comments:
The original indicator was designed to monitor vaccine stock-outs at the health facility level, but due to data limitations, reporting for this indicator is conducted at the district level.
Reported health facility-level data is subject to numerous limitations. Country reporting of facility-level data of stock out event for the tracer vaccines (DTPCV and MCV) started in 2025 eJRF and data collection is limited only for Gavi-supported countries. For newer indicators added to the JRF, it may take some time for the country to establish a system that enables more reliable data reporting. As the IA2030 indicators apply to all Member States, district-level data will continue to be reported for this indicator.
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