Rapid assessment for community protection in health emergencies

Effective public health emergency responses deliver protection for people who are at risk and affected by the emergency. When response measures do not reflect community concerns or practical realities, trust can be weakened and opportunities to engage with community strengths and assets and provide local solutions can be missed. In such contexts, meaningful engagement and uptake of response measures may be limited, and overall operational impact reduced. Using community evidence helps to ensure that public health strategies and interventions are relevant, acceptable and feasible to the communities they aim to serve. Rapid assessments in public health emergencies are short, time-limited activities designed to generate timely evidence to support decision-making and the effective use of resources. They are widely used across different types of health crises, with their focus and methods varying according to their purpose. Rapid assessments for community protection are community assessments that generate evidence on community needs, priorities, strengths, perspectives and contexts in relation to a specific emergency event or situation. Their purpose is to ensure that emergency measures are shaped by, responsive to and accountable to the populations most affected.

This rapid assessment aims to describe the perceptions, lived experiences and needs of local communities in order to identify practical, locally grounded solutions that can support public health responses. The assessment is rapid in that it is designed to be completed in a short time (1–2 weeks fieldwork) and is responsive to the public health response needs at the time it is implemented, and in the different phases of the health emergency cycle: preparedness, response or recovery.

This assessment uses rapid qualitative methods, including focus group discussions, key informant interviews and field observations, and involves cycles of collection, analysis and reporting of results. Each cycle is planned with public health response teams and key stakeholders, including, where feasible, community representatives. Assessment participants are selected based on emergency response needs and outbreak dynamics, prioritising people at greater risk of exposure (e.g. contacts of infected individuals, occupationally exposed individuals, people at increased risk due to age, gender and social inequalities, etc.). Findings from each cycle are shared with public health response teams to co-develop recommendations and priority actions, and are also shared with participating communities.

Implementation teams follow policies and procedures for data management, including storage and protection, and require appropriate technical expertise and training in assessment procedures, ethical fieldwork practice, infection prevention and control, and in the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. Upfront engagement and involvement of key stakeholders is critical to ensure that assessment plans and procedures are feasible in the implementation context and that findings are relevant, influence decision-making, and that the necessary reviews, waivers or approvals are secured to progress. Evidence for a community-centred public health response to a health emergency.

This resource relates to R2HC funded study Communities at the center of mpox and Ebola emergency responses: Driving local level impact through social and behavioural science