1. Design your overall planned response

Develop an overarching social and behaviour change strategy tailored to the needs of the specific target groups you want to reach. Conduct formative assessments to understand the determinants of preventive behaviours among your target audiences and identify potential knowledge gaps. The formative research insights should be used to design IEC materials which will not stand alone, but rather will support specific activities within the overall behaviour change strategy.

2. Design with illiteracy in mind

Think about how posters or graphical materials would look if you had difficulty reading the text. This is important to consider not just for adults who are illiterate, but also for children or people with visual impairments. Take time to learn about illiteracy rates in your country and consider how images alone could convey the target message. An easy way of doing this might be to depict a process of actions or to compare the ‘right’ behaviour with the ‘wrong’ behaviour by using simple ticks and crosses against these. Always ask yourself whether it is possible that your images could be misinterpreted without the text that accompanies them and where possible minimise written messages. If text is included, make sure the words being used are simple and in the local language. Make sure your materials are also available in all languages spoken by your target population, including minority languages. For more tips on improving the accessibility of COVID-19 response programmes, read this article on inclusive COVID-19 programming.

The video below is an example of an IEC material that is able to convey a clear message without relying on written or verbal explanations.

The graphic below focuses on conveying one behavioural message and does so with minimal writing and clear visuals. See this website for more creative ways of depicting physical distancing requirements graphically.

3. Make IEC materials motivating and informative

Sharing information about important behaviours to prevent COVID-19 and information that dispel myths around COVID-19, is important. However, knowledge alone does not change behaviour. This is a common challenge for behaviour change programmes – people know the right thing to do but rarely put it into practice. To change behaviour, it is useful to play to people’s hearts as well as their minds. To do this design messages that link behaviours with responsibility towards those more vulnerable, or with solidarity in combating COVID-19 together. Examples of this include messages like ‘We are all in this together’ or ‘I’m wearing this to protect you’ type branding.

Promoting collective action, cooperation and appealing to a sense of community through catchy messages and slogans is key to information retention.

For example in Edo State in Nigeria, staff wore branded t-shirts and hats that said ‘Protect our Elders’ when working in communities.

4. Borrow good ideas, but adapt them

The scale of the COVID-19 pandemic means that there is now a wealth of IEC materials available globally. Take time to look at examples of effective IEC materials from other countries and consider whether similar ideas could be effective in your context. Take time to think about how you could adapt ideas that have worked in other settings and make them relevant to your context and aligned with national guidelines. Use the checklist below as a starting point:

5. Design materials that people will want to keep and use.

In responding to crisis, organisations often give out leaflets to communities that are quickly thrown out and create waste. If you are expecting people to keep IEC materials or put them on their wall, then create attractive and interesting materials. This could include a pledge that people can sign and commit to; a space for children to draw a picture of their family staying healthy; or even try adding a basic sticker-type mirror on the middle of the messages – this way each time they look at themselves they will be reminded of your message. WaterAid tried incorporating a simple mirror into the IEC materials they distributed to mothers during routine immunisation for newborn children. This approach may prolong the duration that the IEC materials are kept in the households.

Malteser International decided to put their key hygiene messages on a fan so that the material would continue to be used by populations.

This hospital in the Philippines organised a drawing competition for staff to create the IEC materials on hygiene that were displayed throughout the hospital.

6. Design multiple IEC materials and link them with similar branding

In most cases one poster, billboard or advert will not be sufficient to communicate the complexity of COVID-19 and materials may need to be added during different stages of the outbreak and as evidence changes. In general, posters and billboards are recommended for raising awareness about one behaviour because people only glance at them briefly. Leaflets and flyers may be more useful for illustrating more complicated behaviours as there is space to break these down into small steps.

A way to unify multiple support materials under a common umbrella is through common branding. This could be a common colour scheme or format or an iconic character that populations can identify with. For example in Sierra Leone, a consortium of partners decided to develop a family of superhero characters that they felt people would identify with and defined the personalities of each character. These were later used throughout their hygiene promotion campaign.

7. Quote reputable sources that people trust

Including the source of the information behind the epidemiological information on your IEC material could enhance its credibility. UN agencies, trusted government authorities, established non-government organisations or science or community leaders are typically seen as reliable sources (but do verify this with your population). Also consider including information about where people can find other reliable information (e.g. a phone hotline or website). You may also want to include something that can help identify who produced the IEC material (e.g. organization and country/location), in order to help populations know whether the IEC materials they are exposed to are applicable to them in their location and produced by an accountable organisation.

IEC materials might quickly become outdated, as guidelines change to reflect the latest information on COVID-19. Including a date of production on your IEC material will help users identify whether the information shared on the IEC materials are up to date.

The IEC material below was developed by World Vision in the Philippines and contains basic production information about the IEC in the bottom left hand corner.

8. Pre-test IEC materials with populations

Before you deliver IEC materials at scale make sure to pre-test materials with a small but diverse group of individuals. People with disabilities should be included in this group (for more tips on improving the accessibility of COVID-19 response programmes, read this article on inclusive COVID-19 programming). This evaluation checklist outlines seven communicative aspects to measure your IEC materials against. Take time to learn from the community about how they interpret the messages, whether anything is unclear, whether the messages seem relevant to them and how the materials make them feel. Adjust materials based on this feedback.

For further tips on IEC development see this resource from Compass or this resource from BehaviourChange.net

Want to learn more about the production and distribution of communications materials?

Author: Astrid Hasund Thorseth

Review: Kondwani Chidziwisano, Ammar Fawzi and Elli Leontsini

Last update: 06.07.2020

​