Cote d’Ivoire - Communication Executive Summary

As of November16, Cote d’Ivoire has 15 confirmed cases of Polio for 2004 (WHO weekly Bulletin). Note, however, that monitoring in the northern rebel controlled areas of Cote d’Ivoire has been seriously hampered.



The primary difficulty facing the polio eradication programme in Cote’ d’Ivoire is the ongoing conflict between the northern “zone of new strengths” and the southern, government controlled zone. Nearly 80% of the health staff in the northern zone have fled and vaccination activities have been otherwise suspended since 2002. The consultants have noted several major behaviour problems related to communication including general distrust on a part of the population with regards to vaccines, which they believe may be used to kill them for political reasons, weariness of the population with regards to the same treatment, doubts on the efficiency of the vaccine, and growing insecurity about the house marking technique, with some Ivorians believing that this is a method being used to identify houses for attack.



The recent National Immunisation Days (NIDs) have had some strong points, however, and the consultants noted the existence of a National Strategic plan of communication and noted that National social mobilisation committees are composed of a broad multifunctional range of members from several ministries, business, NGOs and international organisations. Nevertheless, the plan is under financed, has faced operationalisation difficulties and lacks leadership. Areas communication strategies have been limited to 4 sanitary districts and negotiations with NGOs have been neglected. Media activities have benefited from the existence of numerous communal radio stations even in the non-governmental areas.



Cooperation with partners has been plagued by low levels of communal involvement in the micro scheduling activities, and low capacity for scheduling at the operational level. Like many other countries, the consultants reported that there were delays in the dispersal and distribution of funds and the government failed to announce the amount of its funding beforehand. There were also reports of delays in the disbursement and proper routing of the vaccines themselves, and basic support materials such as the chalk for marking houses. On the ground activities were also plagued by failures to mark houses, a lack of local recruitment, poor supervisor/vaccinator ratios, and insufficient cartography. Messages were also not pre-tested, and were not circulated until just 3 days before the campaign commenced.

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