Empowering local media can make the difference: 5 lessons from the Ebola crisis

DEVEX byAlison  Campbell                                                                          April 23, 2015

The Ebola crisis in West Africa was quickly recognized as being driven as much by misinformation and rumors as by weaknesses in the health care system. Mohamed Komah interviews an Ebola survivor at the Donka Ebola treatment center in Conakry, Guinea. Photo by: Internews

International response agencies invested significant resources in rolling out the Social Mobilization and Community Engagement drive, a wide-scale intensive social behavior change communication campaign. The result was a massive and rather poorly coordinated blast of messaging shared on billboards, in print, on radio and TV, through health outreach workers and community organizations, via SMS and call-in hotlines.

A preliminary assessment done by Internews in November found more than 300 types of social mobilization and messaging systems in the three worst-affected countries: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This chaotic information landscape consisted mainly of information “out,” with little opportunity for community dialogue....

While the immediate impact of the messaging campaign has helped slow the epidemic, the imperative to “get to zero” has shown how superficial the uptake of information has been. Even in communities that were initially persuaded to adopt prevention methods, in places where Ebola has abated, people believe these methods are no longer necessary. Their understanding of the nature of the virus is often not sophisticated enough to grasp the importance of extended vigilance in every village.

Public service messaging alone cannot address these challenges.

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https://www.devex.com/news/empowering-local-media-can-make-the-difference-5-lessons-from-the-ebola-crisis-85948