Public health emergencies demand quick action. But the ability to respond effectively often depends on work that happened long before a crisis began.
Creating ways for communities to share what they know, need, and worry about before decisions are made can help shape a more effective response. A new World Health Organization guidance document on generating and using evidence for community protection during public health emergencies addresses how community perspectives can inform emergency response. It was developed with input from a global technical working group that included Danielle Naugle, PhD, a key social science researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.
For Naugle, one theme came through clearly: Communities need to be part of emergency response from the beginning, not brought in after decisions have already been made.
“The idea is not to respond for communities,” she says. “It’s to respond with them.”
One recommendation that emerged from the group was the need for faster, qualitative approaches that allow responders to listen to communities during an emergency and understand their concerns, experiences and priorities.
“It’s not just about collecting data about the community,” Naugle says. “It’s about engaging with the community from the beginning.”
During an emergency, that can be challenging. Responders are often working under pressure and may need to make decisions quickly. But Naugle says that is exactly why relationships cannot be built only when a crisis occurs.
“If you don’t have relationships in place, it’s difficult to get the work done,” she says.
Work led by CCP in Guinea offers an example of why those relationships matter. During the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, it took three months between when the first case was identified, and the first awareness campaign launched. This was because all processes had to begin from scratch, including outreach to and input from local communities.
But in 2021, when the first Ebola case was officially identified in Guinea, it took the CCP team just 48 hours to get prevention messages on the air.
CCP’s Shannon McAfee, who was part of that work in Guinea, says that when community organizations and health workers are already engaged, responders are not starting from zero. They have relationships to build on and channels for information to move in both directions.
Across CCP’s work around the world, researchers and practitioners have built programs around understanding communities’ needs, concerns, and realities before designing solutions.
The WHO guidance reinforces that approach in emergency settings: Community engagement is not something that begins when a crisis starts. It is part of preparing for one.
As Naugle says, “You have to build those relationships continuously.”
