Nigeria partners with stakeholders to Pretest Infodemics Management Tool Kit

Stakeholders in the Nigerian health sector converged in the Nation’s capital Abuja to participate in a “Rumor Toolkit Pretest Workshop”. The three days workshop organized by Breakthrough Action Nigeria is in conjunction with partners from the John Hopkins University, USA.

The Deputy Project Director Risk Communication and Community Engagement for USAID Funded Breakthrough Action Nigeria, Dr Olayinka Umar Faruk, stated that the essence of the workshop was to pretest an infodemic management tool kit developed by Breakthrough Action Global funded by USAID.

According to her, “We are here to look at this infodemics tool kit and provide further feedback to finalizing the tool, making sure that everyone has a better understanding of what infodemic is all about”.

The training was broken into six modules and at the completion of each module, participants took part in assessments, group discussions, evaluation and feedback.

The Programme Officer at the Centre for Communications Programme, with John Hopkins University, USA, Matthew Rixby said that the feedback obtained at the workshop would help to know what is missing in the infodemics tool kit.

“We are here in Nigeria because there’s a strong infodemics management system here, one of the strongest in Africa and the world. We wanted to get the feedback of the experts in Nigeria on what is missing in our tool kit. We want to make sure the tool kit is applicable for countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and so on so that we can set up infodemic management systems all around the world”.

Minimising the threats of infodemics

The Head of Risk Communication with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Yaya Disu commended Breakthrough Action Nigeria and their partners for organizing this workshop.

He emphasized its timeliness and relevance to all stakeholders involved. According to him, infodemics is a threat and this tool will help in minimising the impact of the threat.

In his opinion “whatever tools developed at this workshop will still be validated by stakeholders of one health in Nigeria and adapted to what they do. So, it’s going to be a win-win for one health in the country because key actors in all sectors are involved and this would promote the well-being of all through a shared relationship that will benefit all”.

The Director-General, WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus had in 2020 drawn the attention of the world to the role of infodemics in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his words “We’re not just fighting a pandemic; we’re fighting an infodemic“. This was as a result of the overwhelming increase of misinformation during the pandemic which made public health measures more difficult.

Infodemics management tool kit is an initiative meant to tackle misinformation capable of sowing confusion.

Emmanuel Ukoh