Webinar: Communication for Development Monitoring & Evaluation in Polio Outbreaks

This November 11 2016 webinar examines monitoring and evaluating communication for development (C4D) implementation and community engagement (CE) interventions in polio outbreaks. The host of the webinar is Alex McPhedran, Communication and Coordination Consultant in the polio team at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). This organisation is one of the partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which also includes the World Health Organization (WHO), Rotary International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Gates Foundation.

Following introductory remarks, McPhedran introduces Erma Manoncourt, Senior UNICEF Consultant, who shares her experience and discusses the challenges and opportunities of addressing C4D monitoring and evaluation (M&E) issues and explores how the lessons gleaned can also be applied to other disease outbreaks - with particular attention to community engagement. ​Manoncourt organises her remarks around 6 major points, in which she links the whole idea of C4D monitoring to programme design and then shows where it fits in the overall UNICEF programme planning cycle. She spends some time distinguishing between process and behavioural monitoring C4D implementation, activities, and effects. Emphasis is placed on the importance of behavioural monitoring, which has the general intent to track changes in polio immunisation-related behaviours and behavioural components (e.g., knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, etc.) among intended populations and/or priority groups. By routinely gathering behaviour-related information over time, one can assess behavioural trends that then can be used in determining and tracking the skills by communicators that may be needed to really achieve the behavioural outcome - vaccine uptake - and, ultimately, to eradicate polio once and for all.

In part through a question and answer (Q&A) session with the webinar participants, Manoncourt discusses issues such as the role of independent monitoring, the use of photo snapshots to capture data (and associated ethical issues), and the need for an observation checklist (a 1-pager, not a 20-pager) that is very clear on what are the priority behaviour and behavioural components that the researcher is determined to monitor. Such a structured instrument could be shared with any staff member so that they can help collect data.