Risk Communication and Community Engagement Readiness and Response Toolkit: Zika Virus

"During infectious disease outbreaks, it is imperative to understand why people behave the way they do and what influences the behavioural drivers of disease transmission and risk."

This toolkit offers a set of practical tools and resources designed to support country-level risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) practitioners, decision-makers, and partners to plan and implement readiness and response activities for the Zika virus disease, a mosquito-borne viral infection common in warm, tropical climates. Outbreaks have been recorded in multiple World Health Organization (WHO) regions, including the Western Pacific, South-East Asia, Africa, and the Region of the Americas and can lead to severe complications in the developing fetus (collectively known as congenital Zika syndrome) when pregnant women are infected.

The toolkit is specially designed to ensure that RCCE efforts place affected communities at the centre of coordinated efforts to reduce the impact of and end outbreaks of Zika. It provides strategies, best practices, and practical resources to: collect and analyse social and behavioural data; use collected insights to inform strategy and implementation; coordinate activities with partners and stakeholders; support the development and dissemination of accurate information to those at risk; address public concerns; and support the participation of communities as essential partners in Zika virus outbreak readiness and response efforts.

The contents of the toolkit include:
 

• Information about Zika virus;
• RCCE considerations for how to approach key issues during Zika virus outbreaks;
• Tools for understanding the context in which Zika virus outbreaks occur;
• Methods for collecting data to inform strategy development and bring evidence into planning and implementation of activities;
• Guidance to support vector control;
• Case studies; and
• Links to existing RCCE tools and trainings.

The particular tools offered in the toolkit for gathering information, strategy and planning, and implementation of RCCE are: 
 

• Tool 1: Conducting a situational analysis: The PESTEL [political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal] tool
• Tool 2: Behavioural analyses
• Tool 3: Mapping and understanding communities
• Tool 4: Stakeholder analysis
• Tool 5: Readiness and response checklist
• Tool 6: Activities tracker
• Tool 7: Community listening and feedback systems for Zika virus outbreaks
• Tool 8: Developing key messages and content
• Tool 9: Measurement, evaluation, and learning (MEL)
• Tool 10: Checklist for preventing and responding to sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment

The toolkit is one of a suite of toolkits on RCCE readiness and response to a range of disease and response areas (see Related Summaries below for other toolkits in this series).