Communication and Social Mobilization Strategy for Avian Influenza

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Communication and Social Mobilization Strategy
for Avian Influenza
Neil Ford Regional Adviser, Programme
Communication, West Central Africa 20th June,
2006 ECOWAS meeting, Abuja
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What should we communicate?
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Priority behaviours FAO, WHO and UNICEF

• Report sick birds and animals to authorities
• Seek treatment if you have a fever after contact
  with sick birds
• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water

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Priority behavioursFAO, WHO and UNICEF - 2

• Clean your clothes, shoes, bird cages and
  vehicles with soap or disinfectant
• Separate poultry species, separate wild and
  domestic birds, and new birds from old
• Handle, prepare and eat birds safely
• Burn and/or bury dead birds safely

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Communicating behaviour change

• People think about
• RISK What will happen if I report a sick bird?
• MOTIVATION Why should I do something I
  have never done before?

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Communicating behaviour change

• strengthen interpersonal communication at the
  community level, by mobilizing networks
• balance messages with discussion so people can
  develop their own solutions for improved poultry
  handling and human hygiene
• blend local solutions into the response

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Communicating behaviour change

• anticipate rumours about Avian Flu that will
  inhibit health-seeking behaviour
• use ongoing programmes to get the message out
• ADDRESS COMPENSATION

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Learning from other regions

• UNICEF has assisted governments in South-East
  Asia in the development of avian flu
  communication plans for the last 18 months
• The CREATE approach focuses on the rapid
  development and use of participatory health
  education messages

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Learn from HIV/AIDS communication

• Messages easy to understand, hard to act upon
• Social / cultural / poverty context critical to
  the success of avian flu communication
• Communicate realistic solutions that come from
  people themselves
• Use existing networks of traditional leaders,
  teachers, health workers, etc. to facilitate
  dialogue on avian flu

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Technical support from the UNICEF Regional
Office, Dakar

• Participatory Action Research in communities to
  understand the potential effect of avian flu on
  ordinary people and small-scale producers
  considering their food security, poverty,
  livelihoods, health and hygiene
• Provision of technical advice on communication
  strategy development to national governments and
  UN agencies

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What else?

• Right now we are trying to limit the impact of
  human-to-human transmission
• At the same time, we have to prepare for a
  human-to-human pandemic
• Containment
• Response
• We can use many of the same networks, tools and
  strategies

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Three final words

• Voice
• Space
• Connectivity

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From the Africa Commission Report

• Meaningful participation is a political
  phenomenon and requires those who traditionally
  make decisions to relinquish some of their
  control and to hear voices they may not agree
  with or may not usually listen to, including
  those of women and youth. (page 136)