Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) technical guidance by WHO RCCE action plan: COVID-19 preparedness | Page 5

While defining the list of activities tailored to your country, simultaneously disseminate recommendations from the World Health Organization and your Ministry of Health. These sources provide accurate information that can mitigate concerns and promote prevention actions, even though they are not tailored to local communities. Create relevant information, education and communication (IEC) materials tailored for and pre-tested with representatives of audiences for whom they are intended. Pre-testing messages and materials with target audiences ensures that messages are context specific and increases ownership from communities and at-risk populations and other stakeholders. As much as possible IEC materials should contain actions that people can take: a. an instruction to follow b. a behaviour to adopt c. information you can share with friends and family See annex 4 for template to compile actions required and information needed See annex 5 for list of sources where existing COVID-19 general information can be found Step 6. Implement Develop and implement the endorsed RCCE plan with relevant partners to engage with identified audiences and community. This should include capacity building and integration of RCCE counterparts from international, national, regional, local groups, ensuring participation and accountability mechanisms are co-defined. Make sure to identify human, material, and financial resource needs. Define staff and partners who will do the work (number of people required in the team/organizations) and budget according to the resources. Ensure strong and regular supervision and coordination mechanisms. Close monitoring of field work is essential and mechanisms should be defined before starting implementation. Set up and implement a rumour tracking system to closely watch misinformation and report to relevant technical partners/sectors. Make sure to respond to rumors and misinformation with evidence based guidance so that all rumors can be effectively refuted. Adapt materials, messages and methodologies accordingly with help of the relevant technical group. See annex 6 for sources of feedback and guidance Step 7. Monitor Develop a monitoring plan to evaluate how well the objectives of the RCCE plan are being fulfilled. Identify the activities the RCCE team will perform and the outcomes they are designed to achieve with target audiences (communities, at-risk populations, stakeholders, etc.) Establish a baseline (for example, note the level of awareness or knowledge of a community at the time before the RCCE plan is implemented). Measure the impact of the RCCE strategy by monitoring changes in the baseline during and after RCCE strategy activities are implemented. If minimal or no positive changes are achieved, find where the problems are: check if the activ- ities are fit for purpose, check the content of the narratives, the methodologies, the quality of work conducted by the teams (it is very important to supervise the way team members conduct the activities). Develop checklists to monitor activities and process indicators for every activity. 5 | RC C E A C T I O N P L A N G U I DA N C E | C O V I D - 19 P R E PA R E D N E S S A N D R E S P O N S E