April 2023 — As of September 2022, adolescents (12-17 years old) were included in the COVID-19 vaccination program in Mozambique. To inform and design the COVID-19 vaccination campaign strategy, UNICEF Mozambique undertook three studies based on the Behavioural and Social Drivers (BeSD) to explore and identify the drivers and barriers towards COVID-19 vaccine uptake among adolescents. The results detected that while risk perception (89%) and willingness (72%-74%) among adolescents to get the COVID-19 vaccine were quite high, there were concerning levels of mistrust (40%-58%) on COVID-19 vaccines safety in the qualitative component of the research. 

Considering this challenging situation, UNICEF Mozambique supported the Ministry of Health in designing and implementing an SBC strategy to increase demand and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine among adolescents (12-17 years old).

Based on the evidence, it was decided to focus the SBC approach to:

• Increase knowledge about the vaccine, the process, eligibility, locations and dates.

• Increase confidence and acceptance of vaccines by stressing their safety and benefits.

• Influence social determinants of vaccine uptake.

Strategic approaches include:

• Advocacy and Mass Media Campaign: UNICEF Mozambique launched a national-level campaign across different media channels, engaging with high-level government representatives and using images and voices of credible and influential messengers. Informed by the research, the campaign was designed into two phases. The first phase (10 days) focused on COVID-19 vaccine promotion, emphasizing the main acceptability drivers and addressing barriers and hesitancy; and the second phase (15 days) mainly shared practical information. The content that UNICEF Mozambique put in the communication products used strong emotional appeals and highlighted scientific facts about vaccine safety and benefits with clear information about side effects.

• Social Mobilization and Community Engagement to align the intervention at both provincial and district levels. Mobile brigades and caravans of vaccination were used to reach out to adolescents inside and outside of schools. UNICEF Mozambique also actively mobilized youth organizations and adolescent mentors and established a pool of social media influencers as ambassadors. Teachers, religious and community leaders, journalists, and social media influencers, were also trained on the basics of the vaccine and on their role as social mobilizers.

• Rumours Management: UNICEF Mozambique was supporting a social listening technical working group (TWG) which has been monitoring on and offline rumours and misinformation and tracking specific responses. Social listening reports were shared by the TWG every single week to help define actions. Social media and other tools including Linha Alo Vida, PENSA, Whatsapp Chatbot, and Facebook were used to answer teenagers' questions. UNICEF Mozambique encouraged adolescents to beware of “fake news” or rumours and encouraged them to seek information from credible sources or to ask their teachers and caregivers questions. A module of COVID-19 vaccines for adolescents was also included in Mozambique IoGT.

As an overall result, from September 2022 to date, 98.5% of adolescents have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.