Pandemic Influenza Advocacy Kit

Offered by the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P) Initiative, this 27-page advocacy guide is designed provide concrete guidance so that all countries and governments around the world can participate in planning and preparation activities to prevent pandemic influenza, which could cause millions of deaths and severe illness.

Initial sections of the resource describe the 3-year H2P Initiative, which was launched in 2007 by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in an effort to reduce the risk of excess mortality from an influenza pandemic in over 25 countries - with a focus on humanitarian coordination and community-level preparedness. As indicated here, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the overall coordinating agency, with participation by the CORE Group, InterAction, and AI.COMM (managed by the Academy for Educational Development, or AED). The United Nations (UN) agencies focus on national-level planning with governments and official technical and operational guidance around pandemic influenza.

As detailed here, these H2P partners are providing technical assistance including: developing training curricula and materials for trainers and trainees; providing master trainers from the Red Cross/Red Crescent and non-governmental organisation (NGO) volunteers to ensure countrywide coverage; training trainers at a regional level; adapting health education messages and materials to the specific country or community context; developing templates for public information materials; organising exercises or simulations; promoting the sharing of plans and lessons learned with other districts and countries; coordinating planning meetings; and mapping the capacities of NGOs and partner programmes at the national and district levels that may be mobilised for disaster response.

Other segments of the advocacy kit focus on:

• Essential Actions for National Leaders to Consider - example: "Prepare messages and materials to educate the public..."
• Essential Actions for Community Leaders to Consider - example: "Establish a local task force to plan and coordinate preparedness activities...Meet with these community, civic, and faith leaders to advocate for the importance of preparing for a pandemic and engaging their support. Provide them with key messages to distribute and appropriate contacts and sources of information in the case of a pandemic outbreak. Support the mobilization of community groups to begin pandemic preparedness together."
• Community Health Care
• Food Security and Livelihoods: A Community-based Approach
• Non-pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs)
• Essential Messages
• Communication - excerpt: "While the exact messages to convey to the public will depend upon country-specific circumstances that cannot be predicted in advance, there are a number of essential issues that countries can address in their planning. These include the following:
  • Identifying key audiences to receive information on pandemic influenza, including the media, the general public, health care workers, civic leaders, and community health responders
  • Clarifying in broad terms the types of actions or practices that each of these groups could take
  • Identifying communication channels to reach each audiences (for example, TV or radio, interpersonal communication through community or religious leaders)
  • Specifying official chains of communication to expedite rapid and accurate dissemination of information
  • Designating official spokespersons as well as other popular and trusted individuals to convey messages to the public
  • Training spokespersons on how to convey information to reassure the public, dispel false rumors, minimize anxiety, and motivate the desired actions
  • Educating journalists on key facts about pandemic influenza and how to communicate them without inducing panic
  • Conducting research and pre-testing of possible messages to understand people's perceptions of risk and how to word messages so that they will lead to appropriate actions
  • Orienting local leaders and community health responders on how to communicate effectively with families and communities about pandemic influenza."
• Frequently Asked Questions on Pandemic Influenza - including questions for national and community stakeholders, questions for the media, questions for those caring for people with pandemic influenza, and questions about USAID's H2P
• Resources