Expanding the vaccine cold chain in Kenya through innovative cooling solutions

This case study examines the challenges of maintaining a vaccine cold chain in Kenya due to stagnant electricity access at government health facilities and the subsequent reliance on inefficient LPG-powered refrigerators. It details the Kenyan Ministry of Health's goal to transition to 'optimal' cold chain equipment (CCE) by 2026 to improve vaccine safety and environmental sustainability.

• Energy access at government-operated health facilities in Kenya remained nearly stagnant between 2016 and 2021, growing only 1 percent from 69 percent to 70 percent, while residential energy access rose from 52 percent to 70 percent between 2016 and 2019.
• The historical reliance on absorption technology refrigerators powered by liquified petroleum gas (LPG) has been costly and unreliable; in 2016, 13 percent of facilities used LPG as their sole power source. These units cost USD 422 per facility annually, consume roughly 123 tonnes of LPG per year (based on a monthly rate of 11.4 kg), and contribute to a 3.5 percent facility-based freeze excursion rate due to a lack of freeze-protection.
• The Ministry of Health (MoH) aims to equip all facilities with optimal cold chain equipment (CCE) by 2026. This equipment must meet World Health Organization (WHO) Performance, Quality, and Safety Catalogue requirements and Gavi’s Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform (CCEOP) standards. Key features of this innovative cooling include Grade A user-independent freeze protection, increased holdover time (remaining below 10°C during outages), voltage protection, and the elimination of fossil fuels for power.

APA

Sustainable Energy for All (2022). Expanding the vaccine cold chain in Kenya through innovative cooling solutions. https://www.seforall.org/data-stories/expanding-the-vaccine-cold-chain-in-kenya

Chicago

Sustainable Energy for All. Expanding the vaccine cold chain in Kenya through innovative cooling solutions. 2022. https://www.seforall.org/data-stories/expanding-the-vaccine-cold-chain-in-kenya.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Sustainable Energy for All |title=Expanding the vaccine cold chain in Kenya through innovative cooling solutions |date=3 May 2022 |url=https://www.seforall.org/data-stories/expanding-the-vaccine-cold-chain-in-kenya |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{sustainableenergyforall2022expanding, author = {{Sustainable Energy for All}}, title = {{Expanding the vaccine cold chain in Kenya through innovative cooling solutions}}, institution = {Sustainable Energy for All}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.seforall.org/data-stories/expanding-the-vaccine-cold-chain-in-kenya}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }