Designing and implementing campaigns in support of vaccination efforts to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19
This toolkit aims to provide a guidance on developing effective COVID-19 communication strategies focused on promoting protective behaviour and maximum uptake of the new COVID-19 vaccines. It aims to support public health teams to ensure that everyone understands how they can protect themselves, their families and communities.
The world is in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic. Countries are racing to develop and deploy safe and effective vaccines across the world.
Vaccines save millions of lives each year. Vaccines work by training and preparing the body’s natural defences – the immune system – to recognize and fight off the viruses and bacteria they target. Vaccines are a critical new tool in the battle against COVID-19 and it is hugely encouraging to see so many vaccines proving successful and going into development. Working as quickly as they can, scientists from across the world are collaborating and innovating to bring us tests, treatments and vaccines that will collectively save lives and end this pandemic.
Reflecting on this issue, UNITAR presents this toolkit that contains assets to assist local and national efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 and bring about its eventual eradication through vaccination and communication.
At the end of this toolkit, participants should be able to:
- Understand the impact of COVID 19 on human health and development.
- Understand what is a protective behavior.
- Recognize vaccine communication campaigns.
- Learn about social norms interventions to promote COVID 19 vaccine uptake and protective behaviours
The toolkit is comprised of 5 parts, as follows:
- Part I. Introduction: The need for a collective action/solidarity, build back better.
- Part II. Uptake of protective behaviors: Communication interventions in pandemic management, what works and what does not work, behavior challenges, behavior models.
- Part III. Planning vaccine communication campaigns: Recommendations, effective communication campaigns in support of COVID 19 vaccine uptake, what evidence tells us about what communication campaigns can deliver, common faults in pandemic communication.
- Part IV. Developing vaccine communication campaigns: Using all communication assets, engaging and supporting community action, segmentation and targeting, checklist for designing COVID 19 vaccine uptake promotion campaigns, developing messages to promote COVID 19 vaccine uptake, vaccine uptake messaging tactics guidance, dealing with mis and disinformation in relation to COVID 19 vaccine promotion.
- Part V. Using social norms interventions to promote COVID 19 vaccine uptake and protective behaviors: Defining social norms, what social norms are not, why social norms are powerful, descriptive and prescriptive social norms, two types of social norms, using social norms in vaccine uptake campaigns.
The toolkit is comprised of asynchronous e-learning modules and assessments at the end of each module.
The toolkit is targeted to:
- Ministries of Public Health
- Secretaries of Health and Public Communication Officers
- Government Communication Offices
Those with strategic decision-making and communication responsibilities.