13,988 The Drum Beat 777, August 14 2019, The Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP)’s Polio Communication Legacy

* SNAPSHOT OF MCSP’S POLIO COMMUNICATION WORK
* ONE RECENT CI PAPER SUPPORTED THROUGH THE MCSP COLLABORATION
* A FEW OF THE MCSP RESOURCES SUMMARISED ON THE CI’S POLIO NETWORK
* INFLUENCING CHANGE AND OTHER MCSP-SUPPORTED RESEARCH IN PAST DRUM BEATS
* QUICK LINKS: ARCHIVE OF A TARGETED EMAIL INITIATIVE
* PLEASE WEIGH IN: CI SURVEY

• 1. Maternal and Child Survival Program Polio Communication Program Summary
  The CI’s work has been structured around the following areas: providing expert technical advice on polio communication to endemic countries; supporting peer-reviewed research to increase representation of practitioners in journal literature; conducting original research into under-researched areas; providing direct support to outbreak countries, such as Madagascar, Lao PDR, and Ukraine; creating spaces for USAID-funded and other agencies working on polio to capture lessons for dissemination; encouraging expert opinion dissemination and discussion through editorials and blogs; and building a Web-based network of over 13,000 people engaged in communication for polio and immunisation, supported by a knowledge management platform (The CI’s Polio Network), with over 2,000 polio and immunisation knowledge summaries disseminated through newsletters such as The Drum Beat. [Jul 2019]

• 2. Reflections on Polio Lessons from Conflict-affected Environments
  by Chris Morry
  The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has worked in conflict zones since it began in 1988. Over those 30 years, it has learned many lessons about the strategies and operational approaches that enable such success. This paper describes the framework that guides polio interventions in conflict-affected areas, noting that certain elements identified from the beginning – the ability to negotiate with all parties, the need to ensure infrastructure for vaccine delivery and surveillance, the fundamental importance of building trust with communities, and the struggle to ensure that even the hardest to reach and most marginalised are vaccinated – have emerged as foundations upon which today’s operational thinking is based. The paper argues that more systematic analysis to help refine and critically analyse strategies and approaches in ways that strengthen future work is needed. [Jul 2019]

• 3. Supporting Communities to Use Health Data: A Resource Package
  Community-based interventions have been recognised for their potential to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH). Engaging communities as equal partners in using locally collected data has been shown to positively influence the supply and demand sides of the health system, as well as confidence in it. This resource package describes core elements of data use at the community level and provides guidance, examples, and tools to support programme managers, communities, country policymakers, and their partners in strengthening primary service delivery and community engagement. [Jul 2019]
• 4. From Paper Maps to Digital Maps: Enhancing Routine Immunisation Microplanning in Northern Nigeria
  by Leanne Dougherty, Masduq Abdulkarim, Fiyidi Mikailu, Usman Tijani, Kazeem Owolabi, Kate Gilroy, Ahmed Naiya, Adamu Abdullahi, Hadiza Bodinga, Folake Olayinka, and Imelda Moise
  In 2017, the Bauchi and Sokoto (Nigeria) State Primary Health Care Development Agencies (SPHCDAs), with support from MCSP, developed an approach to improve routine immunisation (RI) microplanning using geographical information systems (GIS) technology. This paper details the process of developing digital maps for primary health centre (PHC) catchment areas in 6 local government authorities (LGAs) and documents the lessons learned. [Jun 2019]
• 5. Community-Based Newborn Health Promotion in Pastoralist Ethiopia: The Social Mobilization and Demand Creation Project – Final Assessment Report
  by Alfonso Rosales, David Shanklin, and Abiy Seifu
  MCSP funded a pilot project on Social Mobilization and Demand Creation [SMDC] for Improved Newborn Care in Errer Woreda, Somali Region, Ethiopia, from October 2015 to March 2016. CORE Group implemented the pilot, using the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) platform, led in Ethiopia by the Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA). This study shows that community-based pregnancy surveillance can be achieved rapidly and effectively when it is integrated into established community-based immunisation delivery platforms. However, identification and registration of pregnant women does not always translate into service demand. [Aug 2017]
• 6. Documentation of REC in Malawi
  by Asnakew Tsega and Michael Favin
  The Reaching Every Child (REC) approach aims to fully immunise every infant with all vaccines in the national immunisation schedule. From October 2015 to February 2018, MCSP assisted the district health services to implement REC in 2 low-coverage districts (Ntchisi and Dowa) of Malawi. This report discusses the findings of an internal review and documentation of the results of REC. [Aug 2017]
• 7. Use of Cellular Phone Contacts to Increase Return Rates for Immunization Services in Kenya
  by Evans Mokaya, Isaac Mugoya, Jane Raburu, and Lora Shimp
  In Kenya, failure to complete immunisation schedules by children who previously accessed immunisation services is an obstacle to ensuring they are fully immunised – that is, to complete the vaccination schedule (at birth, 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 14 weeks, 9 months, and 18 months). Yet home visit approaches used to track defaulting children have not been successful in reducing the drop-out rate. To address the defaulting of clients who already accessed vaccination services, this operations research in 3 selected districts in western Kenya tested the use of phone call reminders of return dates for caregivers who had brought their children for their first vaccines. [Sep 2017]

• The Drum Beat 773 – Influencing Change: CORE India Polio Learning
• The Drum Beat 764 – Word of Mouth: Primer on a Polio Paper
• The Drum Beat 736 – Polio in Ukraine through a Social Media Lens
• The Drum Beat 719 – Opening Access to Polio Communication Research
• The Drum Beat 694 – Understanding Attitudes to Polio Vaccination and Immunisation in Northern Nigeria

• 8. Introducing Quick Links: Polio Communication Resources from The Communication Initiative for Pakistan and Afghanistan
  In response to feedback gathered at recent TAG meetings and communication reviews, The CI undertook an experiment with the intent of sending brief, focused, timely emails on specific high-priority issues for the polio programme in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The idea is to make relevant content available in digestible amounts to those working directly on resolving these issues and to point them to other rich repositories of polio communication content, such as that found on The CI Polio Network website, the GPEI website, and UNICEF’s Rhizome website. The recipients for the first experimental phase included an initial mailing list of a small number of people working in, or in support of, the Afghanistan an! d Pakistan programmes. We plan to expand this list over the coming months. Some of the topics covered so far are: engaging communities in conflict-affected areas, working with religious leaders, social media and responding to anti-vaxx propaganda, the potential impact of mandatory vaccination and punishment, and communication considerations related to expanding age groups for vaccination.

  If you are interested and/or would like to see the topics and resources covered to date and the comments they have generated, access Quick Links notes and comments here. If you would like to subscribe, please email Chris Morry with “Subscribe Quick Links” in the subject at cmorry@comminit.com