The Drum Beat 763 - Moving Communication through Polio Transitions

• 1. The End of the Beginning: First Report of the Transition Independent Monitoring Board of the Polio Programme
  The Transition Independent Monitoring Board (TIMB) was created by the GPEI to monitor progress toward the transition of polio assets - not only the tangible, but also the diverse knowledge and interventions created by countries and the GPEI as it sought to deliver polio vaccine to every child in the world over a 30-year period. In this report from its first meeting, the TIMB provides an initial analysis of the priorities, plans, risks, and opportunities as the eradication of polio appears to be drawing closer. [Jul 2017]
   
• 2. Planning for a Post-Polio World
  by Silvio Waisbord, event moderator On May 17 2017, the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Bureau for Global Health's flagship Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) hosted a panel discussion on the GPEI's role in a post-polio world. The event video includes Ellyn Ogden, USAID, Worldwide Polio Eradication Coordinator, exploring programme risks (e.g., community trust in vaccines; complacency) and reasons for optimism (e.g., evidence-based communications; country-led efforts and ownership; and technology - geographic information systems (GIS), mobile phones/remote monitoring, baby registries).
   
• 3. Reaching Every Child: Sharing Approaches to Improve Child Health
  by Lydia BolognaThis report emerged from a September 22 2017 gathering of more than 70 child survival champions who met to share successful approaches used across a spectrum of child health challenges to reach vulnerable children in insecure, fragile communities. Their goal was to start the conversation on how to transition the best practices of the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) to broader health interventions and public health challenges once funding for polio eradication ends in the next 3-5 years. One suggestion: "Programs should take advantage of the skills and confidence gained by thousands of community health workers, religious leaders and others to continue solving community problems."
   
• 4. Polio Transition: Turning the Challenge into an Opportunity - Session 3: Global Immunization Meeting (GIM) 2018
  From June 26-28 2018, over 200 participants representing immunisation stakeholders and partners at global, regional, and country levels gathered in Kigali, Rwanda, for the Global Immunization Meeting (GIM). Co-hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the meeting had as its theme "Navigating Transitions". This video captures a session focused on polio transition, specifically. One topic explored: The importance of civil society going forward. For instance, in addition to the social mobilisation and demand generation activities civil society organisations (CSOs) undertook for polio, they are able to engage parliamentarians and legislators to pass laws that will speak to governments and domestic funding as the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) comes to a close in 2020.
   

• 5. Building Global Health Capacity Through Polio Eradication
  by Nellie Bristol and Isra HussainLaunched at the event Realizing a Polio-Free World: Sustaining U.S. Support for Global Polio Eradication (video available), this series of interactive online reports from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explores public health interventions for which the US government provided significant backing to the GPEI. Each interactive report examines an individual asset, explaining what it is, how it is contributing to polio eradication and to addressing other health issues, and what some of the challenges are to its continuation, post-GPEI. The site illustrates how polio assets are already aiding countries in preventing, detecting, and responding to disease outbreaks, and what would be needed for them to continue into the future. [Jul 2018]
   
• 6. Legacy of Polio - Use of India's Social Mobilization Network for Strengthening of the Universal Immunization Program in India
  by Nicole Deutsch, Prem Singh, Vivek Singh, Rod Curtis, and Anisur Rahman SiddiqueThis report explores the Social Mobilization Network (SMNet), which was created as a strategy to eradicate polio by engaging more than 7,000 frontline social mobilisers to advocate for vaccination in some of the most underserved, marginalised, and at-risk communities in India. As part of the Polio Endgame Strategy, the SMNet developed and demonstrated key strategies such as evidence-based communication planning and microplanning, development and maintenance of interpersonal communication skills for mobilisation of individuals and groups, strong outreach and advocacy, systematic building of an effective partnership for communication and strong supervision, and accountability for action. [Jul 2017]
   
• 7. Polio Endgame & Legacy - Implementation, Best Practices, and Lessons Learned
  Edited by Manish Patel and Stephen L. Cochi, MD, MPHThis special open-access edition of The Journal of Infectious Diseases focuses on efforts, including communication-centred efforts, by global partners to successfully launch polio endgame activities to permanently secure and sustain the gains of polio eradication. Contributors to the volume explore the operationalisation of efforts to ensure a successful polio endgame, including essential changes in global polio vaccination policy, namely, the beginning of phased withdrawal of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) combined with the introduction of inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), as well as the launching of activities to document the transition of polio resources, lessons, and learnings to other priority global health initiatives. [July 2017]
   
• See also:
  Catalyzing Health Gains through Global Polio Eradication: An India Trip Report
  

Coming soon in The Drum Beat:

Word of Mouth: Learning from Polio Communication and Community Engagement Initiatives. Insights and Ideas to Accelerate Action on Other Development Issues

In February 2018, a group of organisations supported by USAID to work on polio eradication communication began a process of sharing experiences from 30 years of accumulated learning. Beginning with a face-to-face meeting and then continuing through virtual discussion and side meetings at major events such as the 2018 International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit featuring Entertainment Education, this group has identified communication lessons that can accelerate action on other development issues. The results of the discussion have been captured in Word of Mouth. However, the discussion is just beginning, and we look forward to continuing and building on this initial work with contributions from a much wider audience of communicators.

An upcoming edition of The Drum Beat will focus on these lessons and open the door for you to join the discussion. Watch for it in September!

• 8. One Door Closes Another Opens: Second Report of the Transition Independent Monitoring Board of the Polio Programme
  At its second meeting, the TIMB reviewed the state of relationships between the polio transition planning and other global health programmes where there is potential to review, preserve, or enhance tangible and intangible polio assets by creating synergies. Six examples were discussed: the Measles & Rubella Initiative; essential immunisation; Every Woman Every Child; global health security; Scaling Up Nutrition; and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A chart shows potential for future synergies based on programme components of each that align with GPEI functions or skills, such as community engagement, social mobilisation, and advocacy. [Dec 2017]
   
• 9. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative: Progress, Lessons Learned, And Polio Legacy Transition Planning
  by Stephen L. Cochi, Lea Hegg, Anjali Kaur, Carol Pandak, and Hamid JafariThis article highlights the essential lessons and knowledge that the authors believe cannot afford to be lost as a result of poor legacy transition planning. For example, partnership coordination, advocacy, and resource mobilisation were essential to achieving polio eradication goals and can be drawn on to move forward on other global health challenges, such as the effort to wipe out the measles virus. [Feb 2016]
   
• 10. Rotary's PolioPlus Program: Lessons Learned, Transition Planning, and Legacy
  by John L. Sever, Michael McGovern, Robert Scott, Carol Pandak, Amy Edwards, and David GoodstoneRotary is developing a transition plan to ensure that all the resources of polio eradication - both the physical infrastructure and the knowledge acquired - can be transferred to other health priorities. Rotary has transitioned its grants programme to include 6 areas of focus: disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, economic and community development, and peace and conflict prevention/resolution. The emphasis is on sustainable investments driven by community-based needs assessments, local advocacy, and community engagement - all lessons learned from the polio eradication programme. [Jun 2017]
   
• 11. Key Messages: Getting the Most out of Polio Eradication
  by Stephen A. Matlin, Michaela Told, Ilona Kickbusch, and Julianne PiperThis report from the Global Health Centre (GHC) at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies begins with a call to action - 10 actions, to be precise - for European actors to ensure the polio endgame and a lasting legacy. GHC emphasises the value of linking polio with other issues that are emerging or are already in the limelight, especially broader health goals such as those outlined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #3. One section of the report examines such cross-cutting issues for global health, describing, for example, the gender and community issues that are inter-related and central. [Mar 2017]
   
• See also:
  Pivoting from Polio Eradication to Measles and Rubella Elimination: A Transition that Makes Sense Both for Children and Immunization Program Improvement
  

• 12. Polio Legacy Planning: Guidelines for Preparing a Transition Plan
  Objective 4 of the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan 2013-2018 calls for the GPEI to undertake planning to "ensure that the investments made to eradicate poliomyelitis contribute to future health goals, through a program of work that systematically documents and transitions the GPEI's knowledge, lessons learned and assets." This set of guidelines is designed to support that objective. For example, successful documentation will capture "how" the polio programme learned and adapted to improve service delivery, including translating processes and systems in training materials, manuals, or operational guidelines that can be used and implemented outside of the polio programme. In addition, written case studies, media coverage, video and photo documentation, and academic journal articles are all ways to compile lessons learned. [Revised June 2015]
   

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