Toolkit: Communication for Behavioural Impact (COMBI)

This toolkit has been developed by UNICEF, the WHO and the FAO. It is a toolkit for behavioural and social communication in outbreak response scenarios.It is split into four sections:

• Outbreak readiness: essential knowledge before an outbreak

• Outbreak response: actions during an outbreak

• Tools and templates for data collection and analysis

• Essential resources, case studies and fact sheets

Section one - Outbreak Readiness - contains details of how to ensure communications have a behavioural impact, and how to prepare for social mobilization in the case of an outbreak. Page 11 features the section ‘Critical dimensions of community mobilization in outbreaks’. This section discusses how to establish trust and credibility within communities so that in the case of an outbreak, communities are ready to engage with health interventions and impacts of fear and distrust can be avoided as much as possible. It goes into details on how to do this, by mobilizing existing social networks and groups and how to ensure community feedback during and after an outbreak.

Other sections go into further detail about the practicalities of monitoring and evaluation during and after an outbreak, and how to implement the ‘COMBI planning’ stages during an outbreak.

Read the full report here.

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