• Effective communication and community engagement (CCE) is a critical component of the response to Covid-19 in humanitarian settings. CCE can support affected people to make informed decisions, manage risk and highlight their evolving needs and priorities.
• Awareness of CCE’s centrality to the Covid-19 pandemic is already leading to a surge in funding and interest. However, CCE must also address new challenges such as reduced access (particularly to marginalised groups) and more complex coordination environments.
• Collective approaches to CCE can add value in the Covid-19 response by ensuring that the right actors are working in the right configuration to deliver the best results, reducing duplication while increasing effectiveness.
• Collective CCE is yet to be well-integrated into either humanitarian responses or emergency preparedness, and it is not always easy to determine which approach is the right ‘fit’ for a given crisis.
• To strengthen collective approaches to CCE, it is important to ensure that they:
  • have well-defined objectives, a clear relationship to the rest of the response and strong links to key decision-making processes;
  • are well-resourced, supported by dedicated staff and funded in ways that support collective action;
  • are inclusive of a wide range of actors, make space for locally driven, bottom-up approaches and foster a sense of common ownership to ensure buy-in;
  • ensure that affected populations have multiple channels for two-way dialogue that include the most marginalised.

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