Inner cities and local communities:  The critical battle grounds in the war against Covid-19

BY NN’EMEKA MADUEGBUNA

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a commercial on CNN by the Coalition Against Coronavirus (CACOVID). Althougha good commercial, it got me worried which led  to a tweet I made, enquiring  if the CACOVID communications campaign is also targeted at the inner cities and local communities. I do not yet have an answer to my poser.

I am by no means insinuating  that the upper class/wealthy and the middle class, who reside mostly   in less populated parts of our  cities,  that make up a significant percentage of the CNN viewership  do not need to be educated about the Covid-19 pandemic. They sure do, but the critical battles of the war against the virus must be fought in the inner cities and  local communities which is the habitat of  the lower class/ poor. A significant percentage of our population have their homes in these locations. Without this, the fight against the pandemic will be much more difficult.

Observing the prevention measures against Covid -19 such as   respiratory hygiene and social distancing does not come easy to the lower class/poor . Most do not have access to regular clean running water, cannot afford hand sanitizers and facemasks. There is also the matter of their cramped dwellings which make social distancing a luxury. Compounding these, are the various myths they have about the Covid-19 pandemic.As we all go through the lockdown, hunger is not on a lockdown for these fellows who are mostly daily wage earners.

Without necessarily abandoning the nice elite-centric campaigns on CNN and like outlets, considerable attention needs to be paid to the lower class/ poor in the inner cities and local communities. The focus of this effort which has to be undertaken within the context of the governance structures of these communities,  would be to develop, coordinate and promote free flow of ideas by word and image for behaviour change and prevention and mitigation of the  impact of COVID-19.  The campaign must help audiences in these communities see COVID-19 information, advice or guidance as applicable to them, their families, or others they care about. The messaging should foster public understanding and limit the chances of misunderstanding, in addition to increasing knowledge, encourage change in attitudes and the adoption of new behaviour. Finally, it must be simple, clear and seek to encourage beneficial and practical actions. Given the centrality of the governance arrangements of these communities to their workings, it will be necessary to identify and engage key  Influencers in these communities for the purpose of leading efforts at communicating and propagating messaging that impacts behaviour and compliance with guidance.

Beyond the information/communication, outreach and mobilisation efforts, interventions are necessary in a few other areas. These include medical response for purposes of conducting medical need assessment and mobilising  medical resources as required; field operations to execute non-medical interventions; and surveillance  to monitor and ensure compliance with government directives . The whole essence would be to ensure that a community based holistic approach is applied towards fighting the pandemic.

To paraphrase some commentators, the elite is living in denial in the face of a national, even regional disaster.According to this viewpoint, ‘a pampered elite (majorly responsible) brought a virus into the country and have spread it through a combination of ignorance and culpable negligence in testing, self-isolation and reporting themselves and their peers, with the result that a poorer, more vulnerable and more ignorant population have driven community spread and viral loading.’

I cannot but agree with these views. The elite must accept culpability and mobilise the resources only they have to prevent the country from tipping over into a wasteland of disease, unrest and economic collapse. Greater attention than is presently the case should be applied towards the inner cities and local communities. Some of the advertising revenue that the CACOVIDs of this world are spending on CNN and like outlets should be deployed towards educating and enlightening the lower class/poor on the tsunami that is Covid-19.

Maduegbuna is chairman of C&F Porter Novelli, a strategic communications consulting firm.