Demand Creation and Advocacy for COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake Toolkit

"One big gap we saw with existing social and behavior change products and guides was that there was a lot of information on what needs to be done, but not really tailored guidance on how to do it." - Emily Bockh, a technical advisor at FHI 360

To combat misinformation and increase the demand for vaccination services, FHI 360 created and field-tested this practical guide and technical assistance package, which supports local organisations in designing, implementing, and adjusting COVID-19 vaccine interventions.

The toolkit includes:

• Demand Creation and Advocacy for COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Uptake: Quick Start Guide, Version 2.0 [23 pages, PDF] - Originally released in December 2020 (see Related Summaries, below.), this updated version reflects lessons learned in the application of the original guide and includes additional tools and templates to facilitate its use. This guide focuses on the "how" by offering practical tools and guidance that organisations can customise for their individual circumstances. "Global Boosters" build on existing evidence to jumpstart local efforts to tailor techniques and messages for specific audiences. In addition, the guide provides information on factors that influence vaccine uptake and a list of global databases where partners can find local research and data.
• Demand Creation and Advocacy Strategy Template [9 pages, PDF] - This template can be completed by following the strategy development steps in the Quick Start Guide, though "[d]eveloping a strategy is not a linear process."
• Situation Analysis Checklist [7 pages, PDF] - The purpose of this tool is to support the gathering and organisation of information as part of an analysis to define and understand the situation. It includes a checklist of questions for the situation analysis, a list of global databases for behavioral research, and guidance on where to find local research, studies, and data.
• COVID-19 Vaccine Rapid Audience Assessment Tool [22 pages, PDF] - This tool can be used after the initial situation analysis, either as a confirmatory exercise or to address gaps in evidence. It contains questions for adaptation, guidance on how to plan and implement the assessment, and analysis tools to ensure that data inform decisions.
• Audience Profile Template [4 pages, PDF] - This template can be used to develop profiles for audiences to be reached through the planned demand creation activities.
• Day in the Life Worksheet [2 pages, PDF] - This worksheet can be used as part of participatory information gathering to understand how intended audiences spend their days. It supports information gathering that feeds into the audience profiles.
• Messaging Framing Template [5 pages, PDF] - This template can be used to organise information to create compelling, relevant key messages and ensure message consistency.
• Creative Brief Template [8 pages, PDF] - This template can be used to guide the development of demand creation and advocacy activities and materials, ensuring stakeholders have all the needed information in one place.

In Papua New Guinea, FHI 360 trained local organisation Businesses for Health Papua New Guinea (B4H) to use the Quick Start Guide to help reduce COVID-19 transmission and increase demand for vaccines among small business owners and employees in and around the National Capital District of Port Moresby. Teresa Koratsi, workplace case coordinator and registered health extension officer at B4H, said, "Instead of trying to give information to everyone on what COVID-19 is, how to prevent it, and what the Department of Health is doing - and requires everyone to do - to reduce the impact of the pandemic, the social and behavior change training taught us to deliver messaging specific to the type of audience that we meet." Over the course of three months, Koratsi and her team visited 207 small shops, mostly women-operated, to give presentations and share information on COVID-19 prevention and vaccination. An evaluation of their visits reveals that the face-to-face approach is much more effective than any other way of promoting changes in health behaviours and vaccine uptake.