Principle: Actionable

Communicate in emergencies

Tactics to apply to make your communications actionable

Encourage action during a health emergency

During an emergency, situations change quickly. Communicators must adapt messages based on the rapidly changing status of the health threat. To move the target audience towards actions to protect families, communities, and nations in an emergency, communicators need strategies and tactics for creating effective messages. WHO and other partner organizations have developed communication plans for specific health emergencies (H1N1, Ebola, Zika virus, etc.). However, some similar tactics are found in all of them. This short section highlights common tactics and refers to more specific and detailed resources to assist WHO communicators in effective practice.

Consider the communication environment and emphasize what is being done to control the emergency

In a health emergency, there is an urgent demand for information, even while intelligence on the health threat is still being gathered and assessed.

Various audiences will have very different information needs; for example, if people experiencing a crisis are not familiar with a health risk, they may feel they cannot do anything to stop it. For effective emergency messages, communicators must carry out the following steps.

Evaluate the target audience’s level of concern or fear. Messages should:

highlight the audience’s ability at the individual or community level to protect themselves and others;
make visible the roles of trusted organizations who are taking action to protect health;
use clear calls to action to direct people towards actions they know they can do; and
demonstrate how the actions and/or policies will make a difference.

Direct special attention to the needs of those who may be more vulnerable such as children, pregnant women, older adults and individuals with disabilities. Show how community officials or other organizations are meeting their needs.
Provide frequent information updates through partners and global channels. Late announcements and lack of information allow rumours and non-credible information to fill the void.

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Use a consistent planning process that incorporates effective risk communication principles

WHO communications staff plan, execute and evaluate emergency communications in a regular cycle to ensure a rapid, regular, and comprehensive flow of information.

The cycle also integrates the practice of effective risk communication principles into the protocols (transparency, rapid announcements, listening, and building trust). The WHO Outbreak Communication Planning Guide provides more detail on emergency risk communication principles and how planning can incorporate them. These are the various roles of the communicator during such a situation, as outlined in the Department for Communications Emergency Operation Plan.

Analyse rapidly changing communications needs.
Build the results of media monitoring into communication planning.
Create and broadly share talking points and answers for frequently asked questions.
Develop message banks for easy information retrieval.
Coordinate communication planning and execution with internal and external partners.
Develop proactive messages for news and social media outlets.
Respond to media enquiries.
Develop multiple-channel dissemination tactics.
Update website content with the most recent information.
Sequence messaging to ensure rapid release of key details. For example, a Twitter-first model allows for release of known intelligence until more detailed information is cleared.

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Coordinate messages with partner organizations

WHO, the UN system, and partners should speak as one voice to maintain trust and encourage appropriate action.

In an emergency, messaging must be consistent, requiring coordination among:

the United Nations (UN) including the UN Deputy Secretary-General and UN principals
the UN Department of Information and communication counterparts in UN sister agencies
partners conducting risk communication through community engagement
regional and country offices
incident management teams
technical departments to ensure updates to published information
WHO staff through the intranet.

Use the WHO emergency communications network (ECN)

Trained emergency communications experts can be deployed to provide on-site communication assistance during humanitarian crises and public health emergencies.

WHO has trained and maintained a roster of 150 communication specialists who have been certified through a rigorous process covering all aspects of WHO-UN emergency response. These communicators can rapidly deploy to:

increase local risk communications capacity;
apply a wide range of risk communications knowledge and practice; and
serve as liaisons between countries, regions, and headquarters to unite communication efforts.

Support community engagement

Timely community engagement is particularly significant during health emergencies.

To support community involvement, communicators can:

coordinate with institutions, community networks and partner organizations to reach the target audience; and
use toolkits to create well-timed local messages.

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