Rules for Risk Communication Messaging about COVID-19

• Existing knowledge:
• Know the level of knowledge people already have about coronavirus.
• Find out what the gaps in knowledge are and what questions they have about the virus and respond to these.
• Communicate the threat:
• Be clear about the danger or risk if people don’t follow the advice, e.g., “if you don’t wear masks  you increase your risk of catching coronavirus – and the risk you will infect other people.”
• Be careful to strike a balance between COVID-19 being 'deadly' and 'most people will have mild symptoms'. You want people to take it seriously but not feel scared or hopeless.
• Provide a call to action:
• Clear and practical action you want people to take.
• Providing a call to action tells community members what they can do to achieve the benefit.   
• This could be ‘wash your hands to protect against coronavirus’    
• Explain why:
• What do people gain by following your advice?
• Always explain why you are advocating for a certain behavior, if people understand why it is important to do something, they are more likely to do it.
• For example;
• If people understand that washing their hands before eating stops germs getting from their hands onto their food and into their mouths, they will more likely remember than if they just know they should wash their hands before eating, but they don’t know why this is important.
• Cultural beliefs and practices:
• Knowing and understanding the cultural beliefs and practices of the community is very important.
• Some of these beliefs may act as barriers to what you are trying to achieve.
• For example: in many cultures it is considered rude not to shake hands or kiss on the cheeks when meeting someone.
• You need to be aware of this in the information you share, explain why these normal practices are dangerous right now, and provide an alternative.
• Feasibility:
• Messages need to provide information that people find useful and/or can act upon.
• There is no point crafting a message that tells people to do something when the situation on the ground makes it impossible for them to follow that advice.
• Example: telling people living in a refugee camp or slum to maintain a 1-2 metre distance from other people.
• When we tell people to do something that is not possible for them, they will stop listening to us and feel we do not understand their situation.
• Update regularly:
• It is critical that messages are regularly updated and adapted based on the changing situation and feedback from the community.
• If people just continue to hear the same information over and over again, they will switch off and stop listening to us.