NOVEMBER 2020 - In collaboration with UNFPA, Coalizao (a large Youth Organization) and the Secretary of State for Youth and Employment, UNICEF Mozambique developed and implemented an adolescent-friendly social media campaign to inform and engage adolescents and young people on COVID-19 preventive measures and mitigation of secondary impact such as mental health and violence against children. The campaign was in response to the need to curb the spread of COVID-19 and ensure adolescents were complying with the preventive measures. Knowledge, attitudes and practice data collected from communities showed that although awareness levels were high, this did not always translate into practice (especially with regards to wearing a mask or physical distancing). By producing content that resonated with adolescents and young people, the creative approach sought to foster engagement through sharing videos, thereby nudging young audiences to practice promoted behaviours and learn more about COVID-19, mental health and violence against children.

With UNICEF technical support, a group of eight local artists and social media influencers participated voluntarily to produce selfie-type videos and images (pictured here) containing key actionable behaviours to prevent COVID-19, mental health and wellbeing and how to report cases of violence against children. The short videos were shared through social media and WhatsApp to maximize reach. The artists also participated in launching a TikTok-like challenge through social media to encourage young people to wear a mask and share videos or pictures of themselves using the hashtag #euusoamascara (#iwearmymask).

Launched on August 14, the campaign produced 12 selfie videos as well as the TikTok challenge video, along with the same number of static images with a new topic posted every other day of the week. By October, the campaign reached 4,151,561 young people with 8,804,191 impressions and an engagement of 418, 997. Total video views were 492,293 (with 3 seconds counting as a view) and total images views were 52,051. The TikTok mask challenge video received 53,000 views and 12,000 likes on UNICEF social media, and over 100 adolescents and young people participated in the campaign offline (with more pictures than videos), mainly from Maputo, Zambezia and Nampula provinces.

The major success of the online campaign was the organic engagement with the videos explaining asymptomatic COVID-19, mental health and well-being tips, identifying and reporting violence against children as well as safety online. In addition, youth groups and organizations across the country like the Child Parliament and Coalizao systematically shared the campaign videos and messages through their WhatsApp groups allowing it to go viral. Although difficult to pinpoint the actual impact of the campaign offline, the most meaningful engagement seemed to have taken place “offline” where during the 3-day #iwearmymask challenge, more than 100 messages containing images and videos were shared, including a homemade video from a 12-year old girl and her brother demonstrating how to make a mask using a bandana.

UNICEF leveraged an on-going partnership with PCI Media to adapt the content from the social media campaign by engaging local artists across all 12 provinces to produce radio talk shows in local languages further nurturing social dialogues at the local level. Male and female local artists from Maputo to Manica provinces shared their experience of how they are preventing and mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and called for communities to respect social distancing, wear a mask and wash hands with soap.

Some important lessons can be learned from this campaign, namely that along with the standard equity parameters related to access to social media in terms of gender, age, geography it is important to consider that WhatsApp appears to be a more effective channel to engage adolescents at scale. Similarly, building artists capacities and engaging them in the overall RCCE response, in their local language, empowered them as spokespersons and held them accountable to communicate correct information through local community radios. Finally, preparing a multi-stakeholder social media campaign that engages artists takes time and requires effective coordination and management. The evolving nature of the pandemic, the dynamic local epidemiological situation and new evidence on preventive measures requires the campaign to be nimble to adapt to the changing situation.

To see the videos developed for the campaign, visit the UNICEF Mozambique YouTube page.

Special recognition to Odete Cumbe (former UNV Officer on Youth Engagement) who was the technical focal point on preparing and implementing the campaign, and Claudio Fauvrelle (Digital Communication officer), who supported sharing of the social media content and data metrics on impact. ​​​​​​​