November 2023 — Building on important lessons learned for social and community listening mechanisms implemented for COVID-19, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) SBC Team recently published the Social and Community Listening Strategy ‘Listen to Act: Social and Community Listening Strategy - 2023-2025’. This document summarizes the excellent practices applied over the last three years and aims to improve how we engage with communities and understand their needs.

This emphasis on community-centric listening moves beyond analysing social media, to encompass the triangulation of offline sources like radio and print media as well as on-ground data directly from the community through community feedback mechanisms. This integrated approach paints a more holistic picture of community narratives across the broader information ecosystem.

Offline listening through mechanisms such as media monitoring reports provides visibility into traditional media narratives. Even more crucially, on-ground listening via community surveys, SBC data, and frontline worker insights offers a direct pulse of grassroots sentiments.

As Siddhartha Shrestha, Regional SBC Advisor at UNICEF ESAR explains, “By focusing on online, offline, and on-ground listening, we can better inform our social and behavior change interventions, make more evidence-based decisions, and foster a culture of responsiveness.”

Triangulating digital listening with on-ground interactions ensures that the resulting insights are representative of diverse segments, regardless of digital access. It bridges the gap between online and offline spaces to reveal a more holistic community narrative.

Another key feature is the introduction of validation exercises for social and community listening insights before designing interventions. This involves rapid consultations with community groups to verify identified insights. As Mr. Shrestha notes, “Such validation can help boost confidence in the insights obtained and underscore the necessity of responding to them, making SBC interventions more impactful.” 

By taking proactive steps to confirm findings and tailor responses, UNICEF ESAR is spearheading an agile, evidence-driven approach to social and community listening. This forward-thinking strategy demonstrates the importance of keeping community voices and perspectives at the core of all SBC interventions.