A training and experience transfer lecture to health officials and delegates from other West African Countries at Intercontinental Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria, 2014.

1. SOCIAL MOBILIZATION,
COMMUNICATIONS AND HEALTH
PROMOTION IN EVD CONTROL
Dr. Abraham Idokoko
Alternate Team Lead & Operations Manager,
Social Mobilization, Communications & Health Promotion,
National Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EEOC), Lagos.

2. Wondering what Soc. Mob. Team did here?

3. O yes!
…we had to
plan, re-plan
and plan!

4. Our Objectives
• Primarily, to inform the public and promote practices that reduce
transmission within the communities.
• Inadvertently, we had to manage the secondary outbreak of public and
health workers panic
4

5. Identified Challenges of the Outbreak
 Massive presence of wrong information and rumours that
elicited public panic
 Unusual number of health care workers among the cases
and deaths [the resulting panic and the mass rejection of
feverish patients from hospitals all over the country]
 Inherent community resistance to key messages, strong
traditional beliefs and cultural practices that could fuel
the outbreak

6. So, what did we do?

7. Key Activities of Social Mobilization, Communication and
Health Promotion
• Risk Assessment and Target Population Analysis
• Focal community entry, engagement, advocacy and
partnership
• IEC material development (Factsheets & SOPs) and Circulation
• Dedicated Helpline, website and social media interventions

8. Key Activities of Social Mobilization, Communication and
Health Promotion (2)
• Mass Media (Electronic and Print) Health Education and
Sensitization
• House to House Sensitization and Hygiene Skill Education
• Special Mass Gathering Interventions
• Training and Local Capacity building

9. The Social Mobilization communication Portals:
0800 EBOLA HELP
0800 32652 4357
ebola.mobilizers@gmail.com
Twitter: @ebolaalert & facebook.com/ebolaalert
www.ebolaalert.org

10. In all our interventions,
…we had the following points in mind!

11. Understanding if not the same as
rememberingHumans are wired to forget!

12. 12 |
The Psychology of memory
 30% Hear
 20% Read
 40% See
 50% Say
 60% Do
 90% Multisensory
combination

13. 13 |
1. Experts and authorities are less trusted
 Doctors, experts and authorities are
less trusted and respected as the
source of all medical and health
advice
So, don’t assume that:
 Our patients and the public took our
advice
 No one complained about our
communications

14. 14 |
2. How the public get health advice has changed
 35% of the world´s population uses
internet,
 Mobile broadband - 41.6 per 100
people
 1 in 5 minutes on internet spent on
social networks, mostly Facebook
(50%), and twitter (7-9% but influential)

15. 15 |
3. Know and segment audiences
1. Primary audiences: these are the groups who you are
targeting for attitude or behaviour change
2. Secondary audiences: those who influence the primary
audience
- The general public, governments, member states, partners,
“blockers and opponents”
3. Gatekeepers: groups that can amplify, diminish, distort or
otherwise influence our messages and peoples’ perception
and understanding of what we say
- The media, community-based groups, lobbies, on-line
communities, community-based organizations and civil
society Indystar, 5 August

16. 16 |
4. TRUST is key
Trust in individuals
and organizations
is by far the
greatest factor in
communicating
risk.

17. 17 |
5. Perception is everything
 Experts and patients perceive risk differently.
 Patient’s beliefs, experiences, values and opinions play a major
role in their perception of risk – about the health danger and
about the potential risk from an intervention
 Organized lobbies that go against what you advise, distort
perception even further
 Patients’ perceptions must be acknowledged, validated before
we start advising them
 The media, and social media play an important role in public
risk perception

18. 18 |
Risk and crisis communication building blocks:
Credibility
Expression
Of Caring
Values
Technical
Information
Trust
in individuals and
organizations is by far the
greatest factor

19. Now that Nigeria is declared
Ebola Free!!
What is Soc. Mob. doing?

20. THINKING WE HAVE GONE TO SLEEP?
…O! NO!!

21. The EEOC in Lagos is working harder to:
• Maintain Public Alertness, Awareness and re-enforce key messages
among the general public
• Sustain Enhanced Surveillance of EVD in all our communities
• Strengthen Port health Capacity at all POE
• Strengthen the Infection Control and prevention practices of Health
care workers
21

22. The Focus of Social Mobilization at this stage is:
1. Sustain Public Alertness and Awareness about Ebola Transmission
2. Re-enforce the key Message of Personal and Environmental
Hygiene practices for the public and improved infection control for
the healthcare workers.
3. Support Enhanced-Surveillance efforts of the health system
4. Empower the communities to actively participate in the
surveillance of their domains

23. JUST BEFORE WE CONCLUDE:

24. We had a team structure, ..of course!

25. What worked at the EEOC in Nigeria:
• Highly motivated and Passionate Expertise
• Phenomenal Team Spirit
• Zero bureaucratic protocol
• Effective Community participation

26. An Ebola Mobilization Ambassador at work

27. Here is an Associate Professor in Action on the field!

28. The people were eager to receive information

29. The People were happy to learn and adopt the hygiene skills
from our House to House Mobilizers

30. The People were happy to learn and adopt the hygiene skills
from our House to House Mobilizers (2)

31. In Conclusion
• Public awareness, re-orientation and community
engagement were key components of the EVD outbreak
response in Nigeria
• It helped reduce anxiety, supports behavioural change and
mobilize communities to collaborate and report contacts,
suspects & suspicious death
• Effective social Mobilization was at the core of the
operations that led to the Nigerian success and it is
sustaining it.

32. Acknowledgements
• UNICEF Nigeria, Communications for Development Team.
• WHO, Department of Communications, Geneva
• MSF and CDC Communications Team
• Department of Community Health & Primary Care, Lagos University Teaching
Hospital (LUTH), Lagos
• Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria (APHPN)
• Volunteers and other Experts who worked with the Social Mobilization and
Communications Team, Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EEOC), Lagos

33. QUESTIONS?
CONTRIBUTIONS?

34. Thank You
Email: abrahamidokoko@gmail.com