MENA Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) at the time of COVID-19 multi-country/regional Evaluation (MENA RCCE)

Social and Behavioural Change (SBC) for Public Health

Description

The World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) an emergency of public health of international interest, and it was announced as the first pandemic of coronavirus. UNICEF plays a significant role across the globe in supporting countries in their risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) and in addressing the secondary impacts of COVID-19 (such as impact on social services).

Several UNICEF Country Offices implemented various surveys to understand the risk perception of the population and assess key knowledge and practices. Communication campaigns and initiatives have been implemented, with heavy focus on digital platforms due to the confinement measures imposed in many countries.

Many UNICEF Country Offices are reporting significant reach through their social media platforms and traditional media, however there is less evidence on the behavioural changes supported/influenced by UNICEF’s initiatives. The Regional Office is especially interested to understand if the evidence created throughout the implementation has informed the response in real time, and if this led to best practices that can be replicated. The focus of the evaluation will be on process and implementation. The main questions to be answered are:

  • Was the RCCE response aligned to the situation/epidemiological data? 
  • Was the RCCE of UNICEF efficient and was the response aligned with the needs and demands?
  • Did the RCCE response align to UNICEF practice benchmarks?  
  • What are we missing to maximize efficiency?

Services

  • Project Kick-off
  • Inception report
  • Comprehensive Desk Review
  • Country Case studies
  • Training of the national qualitative researchers
  • Focus Group Discussions
  • Qualitative Data Collection through fieldwork (57 KIIs, 39 FGDs)
  • Data Analysis (Contribution Analysis, Complex Adaptative Systems (CAS) Framework, Social Network Analysis, Thematic Analysis, Financial Analysis)
  • Presentation of preliminary findings
  • Draft report
  • Quality assurance.
  • Commenting process/Validation Workshop
  • Final report / response to the comment