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Polio eradication action with informed and engaged societies
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Quick Links #2: Community engagement in conflict-affected areas and with the hard-to-reach

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Below you'll find a brief list of just some of the polio communication resources related to community engagement in conflict-affected areas and with the hard-to-reach from The Communication Initiative for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hi everyone,

This Quick Links focuses on community engagement in conflict-affected areas and amongst hard-to-reach populations.  Below are three examples of the many related summaries on The CI polio website.  The first presents the findings of a cluster randomised controlled trial in conflict-affected districts of Pakistan on polio community engagement integrated with maternal and child health immunisation.  The second looks at lessons from Nigeria reaching hard-to-reach mobile populations.  The third looks to India’s Social Mobilization Network (SMNet) and describes its organisational structure and the activities it undertook to create a highly successful social mobilisation partnership.  I hope you find them useful.

Community Engagement and Integrated Health and Polio Immunisation Campaigns in Conflict-Affected Areas of Pakistan: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

 “...the provision of polio vaccines as part of a package of health services might be a better way to engage local communities and religious leaders than a polio-specific programme."

This study evaluates the acceptability and effect on immunisation coverage of an integrated strategy for community engagement and maternal and child health immunisation campaigns in insecure and conflict-affected polio-endemic districts of Pakistan.  It points to the importance of moving beyond polio specific campaigns especially among underserved and hard to reach populations and also provides insight into motivation and recruitment of local influencers such as religious leaders.

Lessons Learnt from Implementing Community Engagement (CE) Interventions in Mobile Hard-to-Reach (HTR) Projects in Nigeria, 2014-2015

CE was implemented as a key component of the hard-to-reach (HTR) project that the Nigeria polio programme introduced in 4 northern states in 2014.  "With the current government plan to implement a 'PHC under one roof' (PHCUR) policy, the lessons from this study can help to shed light on how communities in hard-to-reach and other difficult areas can be included in planning for mobile outreach services. Similarly, other time-bound projects can learn how they can harvest CE results to increase immunization coverage within a stipulated time."

Successful Polio Eradication in Uttar Pradesh, India: The Pivotal Contribution of the Social Mobilization Network, an NGO/UNICEF Collaboration

This paper describes an approach to eradicating polio in hard-to-reach areas of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India, developed by the SMNet.  It looks at organisational elements such as the training of sub-regional coordinators (SRCs), social mobilisation coordinators (SMCs), district mobilisation coordinators (DMCs), block mobilisation coordinators (BMCs), and community mobilisation coordinators (CMCs). It also looks at specific activities undertaken by each.  For instance:  CMCs organized children's rallies and mosque/temple announcements, helped the vaccinators set up booths, accompanied them to houses of missed children, and assisted in convincing resistant families to have their children vaccinated.  They participated in routine immunization trainings and service delivery, and organized mothers' and influencers' meetings, using educational materials and discussions to promote immunization and other positive health-seeking behaviors.

You can open any of the above links and review a longer summary with links to the full document or go to any of the links below to identify other resource you need.

Cheers

Chris

For more information see:

CI Polio Network

GPEI Resources

UNICEFs Rhizome C4D site

 A note on Quick Links: 

Quick Links is a small experiment from The Communication Initiative that might help those working for polio eradication in Pakistan and Afghanistan identify useful knowledge on issues the programme is facing.  It is designed to be brief and not add too much to anyone's inbox.  Each email focuses on an area of particular importance to the Pakistan and Afghanistan programmes and presents brief descriptions of three resources that may be of interest or use to those of you working in the country.  The mailing list, by design, is quite small though anyone who's interested can send a request to cmorry@comminit.comand they'll be added to the list.  We also welcome suggestions and requests for specific topics to be covered and/or resources to be identified.