EU and WHO organized a workshop on Community Engagement for Health emergencies: Learning from lessons and paving the way ahead

The workshop aimed to identify lessons learned so far from the COVID-19 response and use these to calibrate future activities for Risk Communication and Community Engagement.

The workshop enabled participants to identify priority actions to enhance communities’ acceptance and uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine and engage with the most vulnerable communities, as well as systematize and use the experience gained during the COVID-19 pandemic in other health emergencies. Presentations and group work were conducted by WHO experts on the WHO approach to community engagement, the main principles of community engagement and methods of effective communication with communities.

On the first day of the workshop, in addition to presentations by WHO experts, the representatives of UNICEF and Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society shared their experience of working with communities.

On the second day, the representatives of the Administration of Regional Medical Divisions (TABIB), WHO Georgia Country Office and the Union of Voluntary Organizations of Azerbaijan made presentations sharing the best practices related to working with communities.

More than 20 institutions, including local health agencies, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, were represented at the 2-day training. At the end of the training, the participants were awarded with a certificate.