With the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of information in Nigeria, both accurate and inaccurate, increased exponentially, with the impact of the infodemic felt heavily. Information, which is inaccurate, misleading, and wholly false, can have the potential to severely disrupt the engagement with communities and populations as well as create confusion and mistrust. WHO Nigeria supported the national authorities and partners to tackle the infodemic in Nigeria through providing bespoke technical support and capacity building into human resources and systems. This enabled the capability to identify, manage, and counteract false and misleading information to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information being shared. Specific infodemic trends reports have been developed through robust monitoring, along with establishing mechanisms to capture and funnel inputs from the monitoring platforms. This was further supported by the African Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA), a WHO hosted-network to fight infodemics at the WHO Africa regional level.

How did Nigeria, with the support of the WHO Secretariat, achieve this?

WHO defines an infodemic as the overabundance of information both online and offline, that spreads false and misleading information, rumours and facts rapidly, making it difficult to glean essential information that can save lives [1]. Global interconnectivity and digitization allow these types of information to travel farther and faster than ever before. This can cause confusion, mistrust in health authorities and harm to health [2]. Infodemic management uses tools and techniques to reduce and mitigate harm from health misinformation and facilitate the dissemination of accurate health information.

Early in the COVID-19 response, WHO Nigeria colleagues identified the threat of infodemic in the country and the limited capacity in dynamic listening and rumour management. This led the WHO and AIRA to support with the recruitment, mentoring and deployment of an infodemic manager to support the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). In doing so, it allowed WHO Nigeria to leverage the tools and guidance available to tackle the infodemic. The first steps included conducting a stakeholder mapping, developing an information ecosystem, including mapping of key tools used, and the means of information collection online and offline in line with data protection policies. It also included the establishment of the Nigeria Infodemic Management Team (NIMT) with WHO Nigeria’s technical support and that of AIRA, with the team consisting of between 30-40 representatives from MDAs, development partners and non-state actors such as Mercy Corps, Nigeria Red Cross Society, Nigeria Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), National Orientation Agency, Federal ministries of health and information, and others. Further, a capacity needs assessment was carried out by WHO Nigeria to inform development of training curriculum and materials.

Following this, WHO Nigeria convened workshops on risk communications with representatives from federal and local governments, development partners and the relevant stakeholders listed above, leveraging the newly developed guidance. WHO Nigeria further provided technical guidance through the review of the National Risk Communication Multi-Hazard Strategy (NRCMHS) which was used for the trainings. Additional capacity building at the federal level was conducted with over 150 health care personnel, health promotion officers, journalists and media and fact checkers on infodemic management practices.

These actions were followed by a WHO Nigeria-facilitated co-design workshop on infodemic content creation, gathering 17 Nigerian health communication practitioners from diverse backgrounds, among which journalists, fact checkers and researchers, civil society representatives, pandemic preparedness experts and Ministry of Health representatives. This workshop focused on using the co-design method to counter the infodemic and devise engaging and shareable information products in Nigeria. Participants learned how to map audience segments and create appropriate content adapted to each audience.