COVID-19 Global Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy

There is an unprecedented need to elevate the role risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) plays in breaking the chains of transmission and mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Until biomedical tools such as vaccines or treatments are developed and widely available, people’s behaviour and their willingness to follow public health and social measures remain the most powerful tools to stop the spread of the virus.

The COVID-19 Global Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy, December 2020 – May 2021 provides an important update for member states and supporting partners. The updated strategy is underpinned by a socio-behavioral trends analysis and builds on the learnings from the response to-date. The shift presented in the document is towards the community engagement and participatory approaches that have been proven to help control and eliminate outbreaks in the past.

The overarching goal of the strategy: That people-centred and community-led approaches are championed widely – resulting in increased trust and social cohesion, and ultimately a reduction in the negative impacts of COVID-19.

Last modified: January 4, 2021

Language: Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish

Framework for Decision-making: Implementation of Mass Vaccination Campaigns in the Context of COVID-19

This document describes the principles to consider when deliberating the implementation of mass vaccination campaigns for prevention of vaccine-preventable diseases and high impact diseases (VPD/HID), and when assessing risks and benefits of conducting outbreak-response vaccination campaigns to respond to VPD/HID outbreaks.

Last modified: December 24, 2020

Language: Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish

Safe Ramadan Practices in the Context of the COVID-19: Interim Guidance

This document highlights public health advice for social and religious practices and gatherings during Ramadan that can be applied across different national contexts.

Last modified: July 21, 2020

Language: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish

RESOURCES

Tools

Examples

    WHO COVID-19 Learning Resources Application

    The WHO mobile learning app focuses on providing frontline health workers with critical, evidence-based information and tools to improve their skills and capabilities related to the pandemic.

    This COVID-19 Digital Response offers up-to-the-minute guidance, training, and virtual workshops to support health workers in caring for patients infected by COVID-19, as well as how they can protect themselves as they do their critical work.

    The app was created in direct response to an online survey of health workers conducted in March and April 2020 that received 20,000 submissions. Key features include learning guidance, learning materials, and tools organized into the following COVID-19 subject matter areas:

    • Case Management: How to care for COVID-19 patients
    • Infection Prevention Control: Protecting health worker and the community
    • Risk Communication and Community Engagement: Communicating effectively with the public
    • Epidemiology: Distribution, characteristics, and determinants of COVID-19
    • Statistics: Updated news and statistics on the COVID-19 pandemic
    • Laboratory: Testing for COVID-19 in humans
    • Health Services and Systems: Strategic planning and coordinated action
    • International Health Regulations: Public health and international spread of disease
    • Research & Development: Working towards a treatment and a vaccine.
    • Operational Support and Logistics
    • Regional Information

    The WHO mobile learning app is a convenient tool for accessing WHO’s rapidly expanding and evolving training materials and guidance, along with opportunities to participate in virtual classrooms and other live training in six global languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

    Last modified: July 21, 2020

    Language: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish

    RESOURCES

    Tools

    Examples

      WHO Tool for Behavioural Insights on COVID-19

      This is a tool for rapid, flexible and cost-effective monitoring of public knowledge, risk perceptions, behaviours and trust is now available to countries in the WHO European Region to make their COVID-19-related response relevant and actionable.

      The outbreak is placing an overwhelming burden on health systems and authorities to respond with effective and appropriate interventions, policies and messages. One of the most critical elements of reducing virus transmission is public behaviour.

      For crisis response measures to affect public behaviours, they need to be perceived as consistent, competent, fair, objective, empathetic or sincere. They also need to be easily understood and communicated through trusted people and accessible channels.

      To succeed with this, it is critical to gain an understanding of issues such as:

      • trust in health authorities, recommendations and information;
      • risk perceptions;
      • acceptance of recommended behaviours;
      • knowledge;
      • barriers/drivers to recommended behaviours;
      • misperceptions; and
      • stigma.

      The newly established Insights Unit at WHO/Europe has developed a tool which:

      • is evidence-based;
      • can be rapidly applied;
      • can be regularly applied;
      • is simple and flexible to adjust to the changing situation; and
      • is low cost and cost effective.

      Last modified: July 21, 2020

      Language: English, French, German, Russian

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        COVID-Ready Communication Playbook for Health Professionals

        The team at VitalTalk crowdsourced this playbook to provide some practical advice to health care professionals on how to talk to their patients about some difficult topics related to COVID-19.

        Building on their experience studying and teaching communication they’ve drawn on their networks to crowdsource the challenges and match them with advice from some of the best clinicians they know.

        Last modified: June 18, 2020

        Language: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Urdu, Vietnamese

        RESOURCES

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          Consolidated Guidelines on the Use of Antiretroviral Drugs for Treating and Preventing HIV Infection

          These guidelines were devloped in response to recent evidence that ARV drugs offer significant benefits in preventing HIV transmission.

          The objectives of these guidelines are to provide:

          • Updated, evidence-based clinical recommendations outlining a public health approach to providing ARV drugs for HIV treatment and prevention in the context of the continuum of HIV care, with a focus on settings with limited capacity and resources in the health system
          • Guidance on key operational and service delivery issues that need to be addressed to increase access to HIV services, strengthen the continuum of HIV care and further integrate the provision of ARV drugs into health systems
          • Programmatic guidance for decision-makers and planners at the national level on adapting, setting priorities for and implementing the clinical and operational recommendations and monitoring their implementation and impact

          Last modified: April 13, 2020

          Language: Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish