New Coronavirus Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy - Africa

"...an epidemic will only end when community members take an active role in preventing the further spread of new coronavirus."

Risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) has been identified as one of the key pillars of the response within the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Africa Regional Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) for the novel (new) coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak within Africa. This strategy document explains the importance and priorities of RCCE in the response to COVID-19 in Africa, including suggested RCCE activities throughout the different phases of preparedness, containment, and response, with supporting tools to help deliver these. It serves as a template for African National Societies to develop their own RCCE strategy based on their local context and capacities.

For IFRC, RCCE refers to the processes and approaches for systematically engaging and communicating with people and communities to encourage and enable them to adopt healthy behaviours and prevent the spread of infectious diseases during public health events like the novel coronavirus outbreak. This includes:

• Collecting and using community feedback and suggestions to guide the response;
• Addressing community concerns, fears, beliefs, questions, and rumours; and
• Sharing timely, actionable health advice through trusted channels to support people to adopt safe health practices that limit the spread of infection.

The IFRC has identified 3 key phases of epidemic response for new coronavirus, and RCCE plays a role within each one:

1. Preparedness: Help communities not yet affected to prepare for rapid response should a case be detected.
2. Containment: Once a case has been detected, conduct activities to stop the transmission of the virus into the general population through rapidly detecting and isolating cases.
3. Mitigation: Limit the impacts of the outbreak once there are many cases within the general population.

At the time of this writing, the majority of National Societies within the Africa Region remain(ed) within the preparedness phase. The RCCE pillar in Africa was being informally led by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), IFRC, and the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, WHO is tracking and addressing myths and rumours circulating on social media, among other activities, and sharing information shared through a dedicated area of their website. (Within some countries, systems have been established to monitor rumours on social media through Government-led coordination platforms - for example, in Nigeria.) UNICEF is creating community-appropriate materials, such as flip books and radio scripts, and is carrying out social science research and data collection.

In supporting African National Societies to prepare for, contain, and mitigate outbreaks of new coronavirus, RCCE approaches will be mainstreamed and coordinated with health and psycho-social support activities. The priority of RCCE approaches will be to:

• Understand the beliefs, fears, rumours, questions, and suggestions circulating in communities about the new coronavirus, and use this to inform the response.
• Reduce community fear, stigma, and misinformation.
• Build trust in the response and the health advice shared.
• Share timely, accurate information about the new coronavirus through trusted channels to support people to adopt safe health practices and reduce the risk of the spread of infection.
• Identify and support community-led solutions for preventing the spread of infection and bringing the outbreak under control, ensuring people's active participation in the response.
• Ensure the most vulnerable groups are included and that their needs, feedback, and preferred and trusted communication channels considered.

The closing pages of the document feature a Risk Communication and Community Engagement Operational Plan that clarifies - for each phase of the outbreak - RCCE-related outcomes, activities, resources/funding needs, and indicators. Finally, a list of resources concludes the resource.