Committed to shared learning
A cross-border collaborative learning event on Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) between Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi took place in Livingstone, Zambia from 12-15 August 2024. The learning event was a significant gathering – two years in the making – bringing together key stakeholders from Ministries of Health (MoH), UNICEF, WHO, Red Cross Societies, and academic institutions from the three countries. The objective of the learning event was to share insights, strategies, and best practices from their national and regional efforts in combating cholera outbreaks and to co-create solutions to common challenges they faced in emergency response.
Committed to localized and community-centric data
One of the key items on the agenda for discussion across Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia, were each country’s experiences setting up rapid evidence generating systems capable of collecting community feedback and in-depth social data via rapid qualitative assessments (RQAs). Key actors involved in RQAs from each country shared how assessments provided pivotal operational social science insights into their emergency response operations, for example, by enabling better understanding and response to community deaths and supporting crafting of targeted RCCE messages geared towards addressing community concerns and fears.
A significant body of evidence supporting the feasibility and value of rapid social science evidence generation for outbreak response has been produced through key stakeholder collaborations during the three countries’ cholera responses, as well as the current multisectoral drought response in Zambia. Moreover, a good practice model for the rapid creation and deployment of community feedback and RQA mechanisms has been co-developed during the subsequent interactive series of trainings and learning sessions.
It was widely recognised across all countries that the type of social science evidence provided by RQAs was more likely to foster fair relationships and collaborative partnerships with affected populations and promote true inclusion of the most vulnerable. However, national representatives also shared significant challenges with deploying RQAs, from having readily available and trained national social scientists to conduct data collection and analysis, to the high-level advocacy and political commitment required to advance evidence-based recommendations.
Committed to national capacity-building
Learning event participants identified a critical need to support national stakeholders to recruit, train and retain skilled local anthropologists and social scientists capable of collecting rapid and operational insights. This need is linked with a decolonising research agenda to interrogate our assumptions regarding who is best placed not just for the collection of raw data, but for the processing of information into actionable recommendations, and for translating this information into evidence generating activities capable of reflexive learning and improvement. Firstly, this requires investing in long-term capacities and expertise at the national level to collect, analyse, and use community data systematically and across multiple response pillars. Secondly, this agenda requires the commitment of social scientists themselves to understand humanitarian architecture complexities and priorities, and to adapt their methodologies to the rapid timeframes emergency response requires.
Committed to sustainable investment in social science expertise
There is a clear need for strengthening social science capacity at national-levels to enable rapid collection of localised and contextualised information for community-centred, data driven responses. Yet, despite the growing recognition of the impact of having community and social data to help develop responsive, inclusive and ‘fit for purpose’ emergency response efforts, a tipping point has not yet been reached to invest in the long-term, sustainable positions and expertise necessary to advance this agenda. Without rapid and sustainable financing to support the institutionalisation of a social science training agenda as a global good, this work will continue to be piecemeal and ad hoc. This risks undermining the important progress made so far – particularly in the ESAR region – and losing the institutional knowledge and lessons learned from pilot trainings and rapid assessments conducted to date to strengthen national capacity.
Key actors from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe who have benefitted from the insights provided by social scientists for their cholera response efforts have now committed to advancing the agenda to sustainably integrate social science experts and expertise into emergency response operations. This will require a concerted effort by ministerial decision-makers and international partners to:
- identify institutional platforms for hosting and deploying national and district-level social science response teams;
- establish a sustainable training programme;
- and create the required funding frameworks to support efforts in these countries.
Moreover, it is now time to scale up this model and test its applicability in other countries across and beyond the East and Southern Africa region to support readiness and response efforts, especially in those with growing numbers of climate-related emergencies.
The authors of this blog facilitated the learning event and are affiliated with SSHAP (GJ), the Collective Service (RJ) and UK-PHRST (SE, NB). The Collective Service is a partnership between the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as key stakeholders from the public health and humanitarian sectors. The UK-Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) is a key international partner in infectious disease outbreak detection, prevention, preparedness and response; operational research; and capacity strengthening. UK-PHRST is a partnership between the UK Health Security Agency and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
