This is so cool. Nigeria's campaign against polio is one of the most interesting things I have ever studied. It made me reevaluate what we mean by "weak states." Nigeria is not a weak state when it comes to polio. There has been massive political will to eradicate the disease, & https://twitter.com/YWardhere/status/1296895884723130369
huge amounts of domestic (and int'l) resources committed to it. People who have never been reached by the state have been reached by vaccinators. Villages that federal, state and even local governments did not know exist have been found. For many Nigerians, the polio vaccination
campaign has been their most intense experience with the state ever, with their kids getting vaccinated multiple times a year. Here's coauthors & my paper on a wild phenomenon called "block rejection", where communities - despite *wanting* the vaccine - tell the govt they won't
let their kids get vaccinated until the govt gives them something else they want, like building a well. Communities cleverly figured out that the govt wanted them vaccinated even more than they did. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2kLjqWui1ShV3FwUVRmdzZ4d28/view
Here's part of a list we created of instances of block rejection in just one local govt. In another local govt most cases of block rejection were because a village heard another village got free mosquito nets, and said you can't vaccinate our kids until we get the nets as well.
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