Three Founding RIL Partners Join Forces in Yemen in a COVID-19 Preventative Messaging Campaign
A pilot project called Adaptive Response Messaging (ARM) led by the Response Innovation Lab launched in Yemen between World Vision, Save the Children, and Oxfam on August 2020 to support coordinated preventative messaging across Yemeni social media platforms on COVID-19. The intent is a singular message being pushed by key NGO, Ministry, and local stakeholders with lifesaving information on household and community actions to prevent COVID-19 transmission. The pilot in Yemen is scaled off the ARM model established in Somalia in early 2020 in their COVID-19 response (which was able to reach large scale and endorsements across the Somali speaking region)
The Response Innovation Lab is an initiative led by World Vision globally, with Save the Children and Oxfam to support the integration of humanitarian innovation (global and local) into protracted and early onset emergencies worldwide. The Somali Response Innovation Lab is hosted by World Vision, under the SomRep Consortium (an association of NGOs operating in the response). The activities undertaken in Yemen are conducted as a pop-up lab in support of specific activities and led by the Somali Response Innovation Lab.
The ARM pilot in Yemen utilized two Somali media innovators to support the development of the videos based on their work with the Somali Response Innovation Lab around COVID-19 messaging. The Phase II of the ARM project in Yemen will localize the media content providers and establish a localized network to conduct ARM in further communication outreaches around COVID-19 and beyond.
As of December 2020, just three of the four videos had reached the eyes of over 108,000 + viewers. The Sana'a and Aden Governorates were having the most extensive viewership, but others stretch across Yemen.
To date, the following videos have been published:
Personal Protective Equipment needed to combat COVID-19 and other illnesses
Leila & Latif, is a child-focused puppet mini-series about two Superhero siblings that become protectors of their community against COVID-19 and other illnesses. Click to see the videos in Colloquial Yemeni Arabic / Classical Arabic)
Nutrition and Dietary Diversity, which touches on COVID-19, but is much broader around nutrition to prevent illness
Physical Distancing (Arabic)