Research Snapshot: Community feedback in Ebola outbreaks

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, International Federation of the Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies, US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
22
September
2022
Output type
Research snapshot
Location
Democratic Republic of Congo
Focus areas
No items found.
Topics
Ebola
Decontaminated gloves and boots drying at an Ebola treatment centre, Sierra Leone, Soring 2015 @John Pringle

Community voices and concerns can help to inform and improve humanitarian response. Listening to community feedback also underpins humanitarian principles. However, decision makers in outbreaks are besieged by huge amounts of data and many competing priorities, making use of this evidence challenging.

This research aimed to understand how a new qualitative community feedback system was used during the North Kivu Ebola outbreak by decision-makers to shape response policy, as part of a larger project which also examined Safe and Dignified Burial practices.

The study team found that even though community feedback brought important insights, decision-makers struggled to understand and apply evidence to adapt the response. Learning from this study has helped improve use of the community feedback mechanism by humanitarian partners.

This snapshot contains key messages, findings, implications for humanitarian policymakers and practitioners and recommendations for further research.

Other resources

explore all resources
Water and war: The effect of functioning chlorinated water stations in reducing waterborne diseases during conflict in northwest Syria, 2017–2021
Heat Emergency Awareness and Treatment (HEAT): A cluster randomised trial to assess the impact of a comprehensive intervention to mitigate humanitarian crisis due to extreme heat in Karachi, Pakistan
Long-term impacts of a cash plus program on marriage, fertility, and education after six years in pastoralist Kenya: A cluster randomized trial
No items found.
Ebola
Africa
Democratic Republic of Congo
No items found.