Covid-19
A COnsumer-Powered
Aproach to COVID-19
COVID information, prevention, vaccines and treatment are integral to stemming the rising tide of global infections. PSI is at the frontline.
Since COVID's start, we've adapted 300 of our healthcare programs across PSI’s 40 countries – reaching 100+ million people with COVID-19 prevention and vaccine hesitancy communications.
But there's still more left to do. The good news: we're on it
From the community-level
to the national health systems
We're harnessing our 50+ years of expertise leading rapid evidence generation, social and behavior change interventions, private and public sector engagement, and digital solutions to support consumers to access and health systems to provide critical healthcare services, including COVID-19 vaccines and treatment.
Prevention, testing, data analytics, agile behavior change campaigns, and vaccination promotion are core to PSI’s goal to suppress transmission and reduce exposure.
Prevention activities include:
- Mass media and social media campaigns that have reached over 100 million people with prevention messaging to support and reinforce behavior change.
- Support national vaccination delivery services.
- Disease surveillance digital tools that are being used within our private sector network and have been influenced by our long history in programs such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.
- Scaling up distribution of sanitation products, services, and handwashing stations.
- Supporting manufacturing and distribution of other commodities such as masks and PPE.
Since September 2020, PSI has conducted research into consumer attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines and converted insights gained into promotion campaigns. Public-facing vaccine hesitancy campaigns have been launched and specific campaigns have been deployed and focused on health workers. New training modules and other interventions have been developed to increase health care capacity whilst also continuing to provide access to essential commodities, PPE, biomedical supplies, and oxygen.
PSI research shows that two in five adults in Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa expressed skepticism toward getting a vaccine. This indicates a great deal of groundwork to be laid in changing consumers’ attitudes toward potential vaccines.
Workforce Training
PSI has developed innovative training modules to deploy over social media channels. Community health workers, providers and health workers in public and private facilities were able to access the training modules over platforms such as WhatsApp. The modules are bite-size and can be repeated as many times as the learner desires. Information retention rates and participation satisfaction have been much higher than the pre- pandemic in-situ forms of training. It has also reached many more vital health workers.
Public Health Emergency Operation Centers
Capacity building of Public Health Emergency Operations Centers (PHEOC) has reinforced governments’ abilities to take full sight of the pandemic in their countries and direct resources and policies accordingly. Partnerships with the governments of Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, lead to the rapid increase in capacity of PHEOCs. These centers gather rich data from multiple sources that allow for rapid decision-making to respond and get ahead of the pandemic. PSI delivered:
- Training of government health workers
- Equipment and improved infrastructure
- Disease surveillance systems and associated dashboards for decision-making
understanding COVID-19
vaccine hesitancy
We’re in this together. We’re documenting our adaptations and sharing what we’ve learned to pool together best practices as we collectively respond to COVID-19.
And as vaccines become more accessible across the globe, we’re working alongside country teams and with diverse stakeholders to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and build vaccine confidence.
Explore our interactive ArcGIS COVID-19 StoryMap
Adapting Safe Abortion Programs
in response toCOVID-19
This map specifically highlights how six international organizations adapted their safe abortion and post-abortion care (PAC) programs to the evolving COVID-19 context. The map captures their stories of resilience, digital innovation, and persistent advocacy to maintain access to safe abortions and PAC during the pandemic.
Visit our COVID-19 Safe Abortion Response Map.
Our
Impact
Here's how we've mitigated the effects of past and currently ongoing pandemics:
300 programs
adapted in response to COVID-19 across PSI's 40+ countries
100+ million
consumers reached with COVID-19 prevention and vaccine hesitancy communications
114.9 thousand
HIV Self-Testing kits distributed in 2019
2 million
maternal deaths prevented
400 million
insecticide-treated nets distributed since 1997. That's about 20 percent of the global insecticide-treated nets distributed to date.
Join us in fighting COVID-19
We’d love to partner with you. Outreach to one of the PSIers below for more information on how we can work together:
For governments and large foundations: Mark Adams, madams[at]psi.org
For philanthropists: Nancy Anderson, nanderson[at]psi.org
For corporate partners: Malcolm Quigley, mquigley[at]psi.org
For peer organizations: Dr. Eva Lathrop, elathrop[at]psi.org
If you’re interested in supporting PSI’s work now, click below.
Our
Experts
Malcolm Quigley
Head of Strategic Partnerships
Julia Roberts
Vice President, Global Fundraising and Communications
Abigail Winskell
Deputy Director, Global Marketing
Dr. Milly Kaggwa
Senior Clinical Advisor for Africa
Kristen Little
Senior Technical Advisor, Strategic Research
Chris Purdy
Deputy Director, Digital Health and Monitoring
John Sauer
Senior Technical Advisor, WASHLatest
Updates
