The characterization of the COVID-19 pandemic as an infodemic (an overabundance of information-both accurate and not-that undermines the response efforts), 9 in addition to the epidemiological component of the crisis, has led institutions working on the response to further refine RCCE strategic plans and guidance to meet the challenge of a harmful overflow of information that can hinder risk perception and affect individual health decision making. 8 During the pandemic, particularly in a context where there have not been widely available vaccines or therapeutics, behavior change has been central to mitigating COVID-19. 7 The engagement component of RCCE is one of the primary approaches to social and behavior change. 4, 5 In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, risk communication is the real-time exchange of information, opinions, and advice between response teams and families who are faced with the pandemic threat, 6 and community engagement is a mutual partnership between responders and communities in affected areas, whereby local stakeholders have ownership in controlling the spread of the outbreak. Risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) is a component of crisis response that requires a collaborative and evidence-based approach. 3 These adverse impacts of the crisis as well as the immediate need to contain disease spread have called for a multilevel and collaborative response effort both globally and locally. 2 In the Eastern and Southern Africa region, a 25% increase in the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition was estimated in 2020 compared with the prior year.

1 COVID-19 has exacerbated child poverty, with data showing an estimated 15% increase in the number of children living in deprivation since the start of the pandemic. Access to lifesaving immunization services, education, protection, mental health, and nutrition are just some of the areas that have been adversely impacted by the crisis. The analysis highlights channels leveraged, types of data monitored, and provides examples of social listening data use, as well as early challenges and lessons learned.Ĭhildren's lives have been highly, and often silently, affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We describe the social listening approach taken at the Eastern and Southern Africa regional level to respond to COVID-19 and highlight efforts by the Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, and Zambia UNICEF country offices to implement digital and nondigital social listening to inform risk communication and community engagement. In the Eastern and Southern Africa region, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and partners in the response have activated their capacity to gather insights on the information needs of the populations served to better inform and engage with local communities.

In this context, social listening, the process of monitoring and analyzing conversations to inform strategic activities both online and offline, becomes an even more essential component of risk communication and engagement strategies. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been closely tied with what has been called an infodemic, a “second disease” that occurs when massive information volumes (particularly with a high prevalence of false information) hinder the public health response.

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