COVID-19 Response - The Role of Social Science in Supporting Community Engagement Efforts

During this call, one of a weekly series (see below) on the COVID-19 response, Dr. Sarah Paige, CORE Group's Global Health Security Agenda Senior Advisor, and Dr. Alfonso Rosales, Maternal and Child Health Senior Advisor at World Vision, provided updates and facilitated discussion on formalising CORE Group's role in preparedness and response coordination.

In the first part of the call, key members of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) gave an update of the work they are doing in risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) around COVID-19. In the second part, a representative from the Social Science and Community Engagement for Preparedness and Response Platform (SHAPP) talked about the role of social science in supporting community engagement efforts.

Some detail on the main contributions follows:

Topic 1: GOARN RCCE Updates
By: WHO, International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC), and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Summary: GOARN is a WHO-initiated platform to allow partners in the outbreak response to work together more effectively. In particular, GOARN works closely with UNICEF, WHO, AND IFRC, who are the leading organisations involved in outbreak responses at a global level. They are working together in an effort to align outreach, information dissemination, and feedback for a more effective community response around COVID-19. In this presentation, speakers from each organisation outline their work around RCCE:

• WHO describes the work being done by EPI-WIN (Information Network for Epidemics), which involves conducting engagement calls to bring together sectors (health, tourism, business, food and agriculture) to coordinate outbreak responses and strategies, as well as work around managing the infodemic around COVID-19.
• IFRC explains their community engagement approach, which emphasises participation and ownership. They are making sure that WHO information is being translated into dialogue points for people on the ground who are interacting with the most vulnerable audiences, who are often unable to access information online. IFRC is also interacting with CORE and the READY Network to put together guidance documents for community engagement, such as their guidance document on stigma prevention. The biggest priority for IRFC is to mobilise community action.
• UNICEF points out that they remain flexible with their guidance due to the fact that not much is known about the disease, things change every day, and everybody is at different levels of the outbreak. The emphasis of their work is on coordination at the global, regional, and country level, as well as on how to engage people on the ground around COVID-19.

This update was followed by a question-and-answer session that further unpacked how coordination was taking place, and how systems for feedback and coordination were working in practice.

Topic 2: Social Science and Community Engagement for Outbreak Preparedness and Response Platform
By: Anthropologica
Summary: CORE Group is organising a social science and community engagement platform that involves calls every 2 or 3 months to convene networks and individuals with a social science capacity and educational background to share information about the tools, resources, and projects that are underway within their country or regional network. A core member of this platform is Anthropologica, who were invited to this call to share some of the work they are doing related to outbreak response and community engagement. The talk focuses on their work as a key member of the SSHAP, which covers community engagement in outbreak response. In particular, it shares information about the WHO Research & Development Blueprint Meeting, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, in February 2020 and SSHAP's participation in it. The speaker outlines 4 priority areas that were identified during discussions at the meeting, including: (i) how to promote uptake and acceptance of public health measures; (ii) the need to identify approaches for supporting the physical health and psychosocial needs of patients; (iii) how to address underlying drivers of fears, rumours, and stigma around COVID-19; and (iv) how to rapidly involve communities in the design, delivery, and dissemination of clinical research. SSHAP has also produced a briefing paper on quarantine, which focuses on what the community factors are that affect how successful quarantine can be, looking at the psychological impact, and ethical and human rights concerns.

Following this talk, the floor was opened up for discussion, with a focus on the following two discussion points: the pro and cons of quarantine, and workplace safety.

On February 6 2020, CORE Group began a series of weekly calls (see Related Summaries, below) to convene members and partners to discuss their institutional positions around a range of topics related to COVID-19 in an effort to coordinate and support the global pandemic response. During each call, people who signed up for the discussion have the opportunity to ask questions and give input, and these discussions are also included in the recording. To receive updates and coordination call announcements, subscribe to CORE Group's One Health Interest Group listserv or email the listserv using: onehealth@lists.coregroup.org.