Priority 5.1 of the UN Research Roadmap for COVID-19 recovery asks: How can communities be optimally engaged in decision-making during emergencies to strengthen social cohesion? What are the best strategies for leveraging existing local and traditional knowledge sources to inform decision-making?
Deaths from the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will outstrip those from the infection itself. The most vulnerable are hit hardest due to loss of livelihoods, disruption of health and other services, and increasing costs of basic goods. Women suffer disproportionately. In Bauchi State, Nigeria, pandemic effects are mainly related to restrictive control measures. COVID-19 recovery policies need to be equitable, inclusive, and sustainable. Social capital and community resilience help communities to recover from emergencies but there is no agreed way to measure these characteristics. International bodies recommend engaging communities to co-design health and social policies, but little is known about how to do this in practice.
Our study aims to: (1) Collect local evidence of risk factors contributing to COVID-19 impact in Bauchi State; (2) Co-design equitable strategies for COVID-19 recovery to address needs of all community members and promote social cohesion; and (3) Demonstrate increased community social cohesion after the dialogic intervention.
Women and men in communities and other stakeholders will map their perceptions of the factors leading to worse experience of the pandemic. Focus groups will review maps and clarify concepts. A questionnaire will measure identified risk factors, experience of the pandemic, individual social capital, and community social cohesion. The household survey will cover 1500 women and men in nine communities, reflecting urban/rural location and including minority groups. Dialogue groups of community members, service providers and policy makers will review the local evidence and co-design equitable policies for COVID-19 recovery. A follow up survey will measure changes in community social cohesion.
