Nurzhynska, Nikoi); Communication for Development (C4D) consultant (
Abebe)
"Success factors, barriers, and other lessons learned from advocacy, social mobilisation, and community engagement play a pivotal role in supporting cVDPV2 outbreak response."
Although the last confirmed polio case in Ghana had occurred in 2008, in July and August 2019, the country confirmed 3 events of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2). From the onset of the outbreak, the Ministry of Health/Ghana Health Service (MOH/GHS) declared a public health emergency of national concern; consequently, massive house-to-house vaccination campaigns were carried out by GHS and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) in various regions. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), a GPEI partner, was one of the key actors in supporting social mobilisation and community engagement in all rounds of the response. In this document, UNICEF Ghana shares key learnings in the area of social mobilisation and community engagement in Ghana's CVDP2 response - especially in light of the fact that it took place in the midst of COVID-19.