Social Listening in Eastern and Southern Africa, a UNICEF Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy to Address the COVID-19 Infodemic

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. 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. 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. 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. 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.