In order to provide those responding to COVID19 in Somalia with a snapshot of how the people of Somalia are thinking about the epidemic in these early days, Africa’s Voices reached out using its established multimedia interactive platform called Imaqal (‘listen to me’) that promotes gender equality and social inclusion. AVF sent out this broad question to Imaqal listeners.
On the 13th May 2021, AVF sent a question via SMS to participants from its flagship programme in Somalia, Imaqal — (“Listen to me”). The aim was to get an understanding of the attitudes towards vaccination among AVF’s participants in Somalia at the time when the world is working on rolling out vaccinations against Covid-19.
Between April 3rd and 5th 2020, Africa’s Voices heard from over 7,700 Somalis from South Central and Puntland, 40% recently displaced, answering an open question on their thoughts on COVID-19.
The project was a collaboration between Cambridge University and University of Nairobi researchers, working with the team at Africa’s Voices Foundation. It aimed to conduct a rapid diagnostic on the community questions, concerns and risk perceptions in Somalia – especially peri-urban IDP settings – concerning COVID-19.
Within four days our team of Somali-speaking researchers analysed over 15,000 responses rich with insights. The findings are important for any Risk Communications and Community Engagement (RCCE) programming in the wake of COVID-19 in Somalia.
A total of 980 (n) participants, previously engaged with AVF’s interactive radio programming, have voluntarily chosen to respond the question. This is therefore a self-selected sample, not representative of
Somalia.
● Participants have engaged with AVF in past recent interactive radio consultations on Covid-19, gender equality and social inclusion.
● Participants are mostly young (57% of those who told us their age are aged 18 to 35).
● There are slightly more men in the sample (58.2% men — 41.8% women)
You can access the full findings of this research on this link.