AED Hosts Symposium on Health Communication in Fragile States and Humanitarian Emergencies
Posted on July 30, 2005

Each year 2 billion people face health threats because they are exposed to crisis situations. Relief, recovery and long-term development efforts that address the needs of populations affected by epidemics, genocide, and natural disasters like the December 26 tsunami depend on the effectiveness of communication efforts for their success.

"Health Communication in Fragile States and Humanitarian Emergencies" was the topic of a day-long symposium held July 25, 2005, at AED, in conjunction with the George Washington University Center for Global Health.

The event brought together key players in disaster relief, preparedness and development to examine the most crucial communication challenges that have emerged from recent humanitarian crises and emergencies, and successful strategies to get affected populations the information they need to survive and recover.

Mark Rasmuson, Vice President and Director, AED Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing, served as the moderator for the day.

Health Communication in Fragile States
USAID Medical Officer Clydette Powell spoke about the need to coordinate between the military, civilian, and humanitarian community and the agency's Fragile States Strategy, intended to prevent crisis, reverse decline and advance recovery.

She urged participants to ask, "Is our work in the health sector contributing to stability?" Panelists then discussed the role of health communication in dealing with emergencies in Haiti and in promoting infant and child feeding during emergencies.

For young children, the risk of chronic and long-term malnutrition is increased during crisis and emergency situations. According to Judy Canahuati, a USAID maternal and child health advisor, one of the main goals of health communication efforts should be ensuring health workers have accurate and up-to-date information about infant feeding. Canahuati highlighted the important role AED has played in supporting the development of training materials that have been used to bolster infant feeding during emergencies.

Communication Challenges in Humanitarian Emergencies
Using communication efforts in Aceh, Indonesia in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami as an example, Shannon Doocy of the Johns Hopkins University's Center for International Emergency Disaster and Refugee Studies, pointed to wide efforts to communicate across all organizations as one of the strategies that worked. Doocy also highlighted the importance of interagency coordination. She mentioned that some of the greatest communication challenges had to do with limited information sharing among agencies and the lack of reliable information.

Rapidly spreading rumors, a common occurrence during humanitarian emergencies, are one of the major factors affecting the flow of accurate information to vulnerable populations, according to Heidi Larson of UNICEF. Larson explained that some of the best ways to manage health rumors, often fueled by distrust, anger, and misinformation, are to be "honest and prompt in providing risk information to affected publics, listen to people's concerns, and build trust."

Commenting on the lessons learned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from Angola's recent Marburg virus outbreak, Marsha Vanderford of the CDC's Coordinating Center for Health Information Services, pointed to several challenges that well-thought-out and effective communication strategies can help to address: namely a distrust of government efforts, a fear of international teams, and the practice of reusing syringes.

Through its experience in providing health communication during this crisis, the CDC learned that a local assessment of communications needs is essential, as is feedback on the usefulness of communications tools such as CD-ROMS and fact sheets.

The Challenge to International Media Coverage of Humanitarian Crises
While the panelists focused on the need for increased health communication, keynote speaker and CNN journalist Frank Sesno addressed the challenges and dangers surrounding international media coverage of humanitarian crises.

Sesno cited "information, examination, investigation and recrimination/accountability" as the four essential components of reporting on disasters.

He warned that while the tsunami "illustrates brilliantly the potential for people around the world to share an experience in terms of awareness and immediate action," the media's constant focus on the bottom line and the fragmentation of television audiences can lead to sensationalism.

The veteran television journalist also recognized the challenge relief and development organizations face in securing coverage given that, since 9/11, many international stories are framed through the prism of terrorism and national security.

Despite those challenges, Sesno emphasized the need for sustained media coverage of relief and humanitarian emergencies and told participants that the rising popularity of Internet news sites, blogs and other "nontraditional" media indeed represents an opportunity for those working in the field to connect with different audiences.

Role of Media and Technologies in Humanitarian Emergencies
Other speakers discussed the innovative use of new information technologies during crises and humanitarian emergencies and the essential elements in current emergency preparedness.

Michael Tetelman, senior program officer at the AED Center for Applied Technology, recognized that it's difficult for people in fragile states and those experiencing humanitarian emergencies to look at the use of information communications technology (ICT) as a tool to help mitigate crisis. However, he explained that mobile telephony and personal digital assistants (PDAs) have many applications during disaster relief efforts and long-term recovery of affected areas.

"Cell phones and radio play a crucial part in alerting communities about impending disasters and where to go," said Tetelman. He cited the example of a coastal town in India warned by cell phone of the imminent tsunami which then used its public address system to successfully evacuate its 6,000 residents.

PDAs are important because they can be used to send information from the field pertaining to emergency response needs to different groups and make it easier for those groups to coordinate their efforts.

"It's about the process of making things more streamlined and improving the response time," said Tetelman.

Emergency Preparedness
In the day's final session Dan Rutz from CDC and Beth Casey Devries from the American Red Cross shared specific strategies and tools that the two agencies have developed to communicate the potential risk of a new global flu pandemic and to train volunteers to prepare for and respond to different types of disasters.

Stimulated by the tsunami and the rising threat of avian flu, this symposium provided a timely opportunity to examine the urgent health communication needs in fragile states and use lessons learned from previous crises and emergencies to develop better health communication strategies.

"Too often, communication about emergencies is limited to news reporting by the international media to the global audience," said Rasmuson. "The symposium reminded all of us that we need to do a much better job at reaching the people directly affected by a disaster with health information that is timely, practical, and reassuring --and that may save their lives."

For more information, please contact Mark Rasmuson

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Symposium on Health Communication in Fragile States and Humanitarian Emergencies (161 kb)

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