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OIn December 2021, IVI and the University of Antananarivo opened the Madagascar Institute for Vaccine Research, also known as the “the University of Antananarivo – International Vaccine Institute Collaborating Center” with a ceremony held at the University of Antananarivo.

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ABOUT COVIA

What is the COVIA Program?

About COVIA

The COVID-19 Research in African Settings (COVIA) program is an initiative designed to address the lack of comprehensive disease burden data in low- and middle-income countries. It focuses on supporting local institutions in Madagascar and Burkina Faso to improve COVID-19 detection and surveillance through healthcare facility-based monitoring, vaccine hesitancy surveys, and analyzing febrile samples collected as part of typhoid programs.

Why is COVIA Important?

While the global understanding of COVID-19 has been shaped by data from high-income countries, there is a critical gap in knowledge about the disease's impact in resource-limited settings. The COVIA program aims to fill this gap by:

Enhancing disease surveillance and testing capacities in rural and underserved regions.


Generating local data to inform effective public health policies and responses.


Supporting global efforts to understand the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in diverse contexts.

Key Activities and Objectives

  • 1. In Madagascar, COVIA operates across health clinics in three rural districts of Antananarivo, implementing systems to detect and monitor COVID-19 cases.
  • 2. In Burkina Faso, similar surveillance systems are helping identify cases and track disease trends.

Surveys are conducted to assess community attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines, providing valuable insights to improve vaccination campaigns.

Efforts include tracing and testing household contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases to better understand transmission dynamics within communities.

COVIA works with local partners to determine the COVID-19 disease burden and integrate this data into the global COVID-19 repository. This information is critical for shaping effective health policies in low-resource settings.

Collaborative Efforts and Capacity Building

COVIA is part of a broader effort by the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) to support global health through vaccine development and epidemiological research. By collaborating with local institutions, COVIA strengthens healthcare infrastructure and builds capacity for disease detection, surveillance, and response.

Funding and Support

The COVIA program is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Its work complements IVI’s larger COVID-19 research portfolio, which includes vaccine development, clinical trials, and establishing vaccine evaluation systems.

The Goal

COVIA aims to bridge the data gap in resource-limited settings, ensuring that communities in Madagascar, Burkina Faso, and beyond are better equipped to detect, respond to, and mitigate the impact of COVID-19, while contributing vital data to global pandemic response efforts.