Nationwide multi-channel sexual reproductive health and gender based violence messaging campaign in Sierra Leone (Preprint)

Abstract

UNFPA launched two one-month campaigns to reach Sierra Leoneans at scale with critical Sexual Reproductive Health and gender-based violence messages during the Coronavirus 2019 pandemic.

The intervention objective was to deliver Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and gender-based violence (GBV) messages to mobile phone subscribers in Sierra Leone. This paper presents the intervention’s messaging campaign design, deployment methodologies, and design-decisions; shows campaign effectiveness; and share lessons learned, including call pickup rates and listening-duration.

We designed and deployed a two-phased campaign – phase one targeted Freetown (urban) residents, and phase two targeted Sierra Leoneans nationwide (urban and rural). Phase one delivered Family Planning, Maternal Health, Gender Based Violence (GBV), and Coronavirus 2019 messages through automated voice calls, SMS, radio jingles, and social media. Phase two of the campaign delivered national GBV only campaign messages through SMS and Radio jingles.

In phase one, only 31% of the 1,093,606 initiated automated calls to 290,000 subscribers were picked up, and this dropped significantly at 95% confidence (p=1) after each of the four weeks. Also, at 95% confidence levels, a significant number of subscribers did not listen to the complete messages when repeated (p=1). Thirty-one million two hundred (31.2 million) SMS messages were sent to all 3.9 million active Africell subscribers in Sierra Leone during the second phase. Also, SRH and GBV messages were aired on thirteen national radio stations in Sierra Leone during the second phase. The national toll free helpline for GBV cases reported an increase in calls and attributed it to the campaign. Automated call interventions are cost and human resource intensive. Call pickup rates, listening duration, language, and consideration for users’ ability to re-reference messages are key factors when selecting scalable messaging campaign channels. The drop in the number of subscribers picking up automated calls from the first to fourth week was significant at a confidence level of 95%. According to the GBV helpline operators, the increase in calls reporting GBV was attributable to our campaign.

Only a third of subscribers called with pre-recorded messages picked up their calls. When automated calls are repeated, it leads to a significant drop in call completion rates. There was an increase in demand for service to the GBV helpline in the month following the campaign. A multi-channel messaging campaign helped reach different groups of young people.