UNICEF/2020/S.Karahoda
blog

We need trust in our politics to overcome vaccine hesitancy

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic hinges on the success of a vaccine, but getting populations to accept and have confidence in one is a complicated process that requires an end to confusion and opacity and the advancement of "good politics".
Megan Schmidt-Sane, Santiago Ripoll, Tabitha Hrynick
8 Dec 2020
UNI347491
interview

More than money: reimagining health systems needs inclusive data

We sat down with Simone Carter, manager of the Social Science Analytics Cell (CASS) in the DRC and lead for Integrated Multidisciplinary Outbreak Analytics (IMOA) for UNICEF’s Public Health Emergencies team, to hear her thoughts on whether the global pandemic is the moment to reimagine health systems
UNICEF/UN029601/Libório
blog

Lessons from Brazil for the global response to COVID-19

Health systems around the world struggle to respond to COVID-19 amidst declining trust in public authorities, andcitizen-led self-help groups often taking the lead in ways that are undervalued or ignored by policymakers.
Alex Shankland
26 Mar 2020
UNICEF/Dejongh
blog

COVID-19 – A social phenomenon requiring diverse expertise

In a fast moving and changing world, all kinds of uncertainty will emerge. We need leaders who will listen and adapt. Clear government directives from above are key, but we also need good coordination of local action.
Annie Wilkinson, Melissa Leach, Hayley MacGregor, Melissa Parker
23 Mar 2020
UNICEF/Ma
blog

Where is social science in the Coronavirus response?

Social science networks can provide crucial support to stemming nCoV by promoting the understanding of the context-response relationship as emergent and constantly evolving.
Santiago Ripoll
3 Feb 2020
blog

Resetting the Ebola response in Congo means trusting the people affected

As suspected Ebola cases continue to go under-reported, people continue to present late at health facilities and treatment units, and those who are untreated continue to die at home, it is only through strengthening community-based surveillance and locally led response actions that the outbreak will be controlled.
Central and East Africa Hub
Melissa Leach, Juliet Bedford
4 Jun 2019
blog

Ebola outbreak in Eastern Congo: The political economy of the disease

The history of Ebola in Bikoro has many versions, as histories do – each coloured by the voice in which they are told and the experience that person has had with the virus.  Few voices remain untouched by the virus; the tenor of the entire country is affected by the…
Central and East Africa Hub
8 Apr 2019
blog

‘Chanjo’? Ebola warnings puzzle communities in Goma

The availability of an experimental vaccine is seen as a game changer in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But some residents in the North Kivu province capital city of Goma, in particular women over 35 years old, aren’t so sure.
4 Apr 2019
news

2018 review: Looking ahead to 2019

20th December 2018
The SSHAP was started in 2017 by UNICEF’s Communication for Development Section, in collaboration with the Institute of Development Studies, and Anthrologica, and completed its second year in full operation this month.