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UN Polio

#Government/Public Sector #Healthcare #International Development #Non-profit
ProHub Comment

This is an interviewer-led case requiring structured thinking on unfamiliar territory (vaccination campaigns). It progresses logically from location selection through epidemiological concepts (herd immunity) to operational considerations (distribution methods and cost analysis), teaching candidates to break down complex problems systematically even without domain expertise.

Estimated Time 26 minutes
Difficulty Medium
Source Cornell
10 / 100
Your client is the United Nations, who have hired you to help them with their fight to eradicate polio. They’re struggling with two related problems: 1) out of the countries that have requested their help to fight polio, which should they choose to go into first and 2) once they have chosen a particular location to go into, what factors need to be considered to ensure success. To start, what are some of the characteristics you would look for to identify the best location for the UN to start with?

Clarifying Information

No separate ‘Clarifying Information’ section provided in the case. Candidates receive exhibits progressively during the interview: Exhibit 1 shows a Global Polio Study chart with countries plotted by prevalence and death rate; Exhibit 2 provides an epidemiological S-curve showing vaccination effectiveness and herd immunity threshold.
Mock Interview
Interviewer

Your client is the United Nations, who have hired you to help them with their fight to eradicate polio. They're struggling with two related problems: 1) out of the countries that have requested their help to fight polio, which should they choose to go into first and 2) once they have chosen a particular location to go into, what factors need to be considered to ensure success. To start, what are some of the characteristics you would look for to identify the best location for the UN to start with?

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

AI Score
Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
Practicing...
Score coming soon
Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

The UN needs to select a country for polio eradication and determine implementation strategy. Through data analysis, candidates should select Pakistan based on prevalence and death rates, recognize the 40% herd immunity threshold from vaccination data, target 80-90% vaccination rates long-term, and choose a decentralized distribution model (Method B) to minimize costs while ensuring geographic coverage.

Key Insights:

  1. Population size matters as much as prevalence rates—India should be selected due to absolute case volume despite Pakistan’s higher percentage rates
  2. Herd immunity threshold (~40%) creates a non-linear cost-benefit curve; reaching 50-60% short-term and 80-90% long-term targets captures efficiency gains
  3. Centralized distribution saves money upfront but fails to achieve universal herd immunity; decentralized approach is operationally superior despite higher initial costs
  4. Long-term cost projections ($90B for full vaccination) must account for scaling behavior; optimal solution changes depending on vaccination rate targets