South Sudan: Trends in Communication Preferences and Modalities

REACH teams in South Sudan published their first COVID-19 preparedness information product drawn from a selection of REACH assessments examining “Trends in Communication Preferences and Modalities” to aid partners in informing COVID-19 risk communication outreach and community engagement.

Key findings:

Information about COVID-19 should adopt a multi-channel messaging strategy and flow via existing community communication structures, especially as community information sources reportedly generally do not change during an emergency:

There is a strong reported preference for in-person information sharing, especially through community leaders and community mobilizers; however, health-related messaging is reportedly transmitted to most communities in-person from health-related actors (MoH, community health workers, NGOs), not community leaders, in most assessed settlements where the Ebola response has/is taking place (Easter, Western and Central Equatoria).

Despite state level variation in reported preferred spoken language of communication, English is reported as the most preferred language of written communication in all ten states.

Radio Miraya was reported as the most widely listened radio station

In camp settings, radio was listed as the primary channel to access trustworthy news and information

In multiple FGDs and KIIs, respondents agreed that “radio is only a useful source of communication when supplemented with in-person” forms of communication

Cell-phone coverage was found to be reportedly unevenly distributed across South Sudan

States with the lowest reported cell-phone coverage are Eastern Equatoria, Upper Nile and Jonglei.

States with the highest reported cellphone penetration are Central Equatoria, Lakes, Warrap and Western Bahr el Gazhal.