3rd WHO training on infodemic management

3rd WHO training on infodemic management

16 Nov - 9 Dec 2021, cosponsored by US CDC, UNICEF and RCCE collective service

WHO/Sam Bradd
© Credits

Building on the experience of previous two trainings and of more than 500 graduates across 120 countries since November 2020, WHO organizes the 3rd global training on Infodemic Management.

For 4 weeks, the participants are supported to reflect on the lessons learned since the start of the pandemic and on infodemic management strategies, tools and data sources available to date and needed in the future.

The training has been designed to fulfill the needs of future infodemic managers, but also of the managers of infodemic managers. It emphasises the competencies described in the newly published competency framework for workforce response to infodemic management.

Thanks to 24 hours of live class sessions involving 35 lecturers along four weeks, the trainees will learn about:

  • the emerging topics in infodemic management
  • strategy development
  • and policy implications in infodemic management.

They will practice their newly acquired skills in a simulation exercise. In groups, they are virtually deployed in a prosperous fantasy country on the coast of the Narwhale Ocean, called the Kingdom of Great Wishdom. Wishdom has experienced a change in Ministry of Health leadership amidst growing pandemic fatigue and stagnating COVID-19 vaccine coverage and an infodemic that is running rampant.

 


Welcome address by Sylvie Briand

Download the training booklet below

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Training videos

What we have learned about Infodemic Management since the beginning of COVID-19 - Tina Purnat

 

Integrating infodemic management and competencies into Public Health - Elisabeth Wilhelm

Get deployed and get useful/Get deployers, get effective! - Elisabeth Wilhelm

Building public health communications systems that are worthy of trust - Cherstyn Hurley

 

The Infodemic Manager’s Intervention Toolbox - Tina Purnat and Elisabeth Wilhelm

 

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More about the training

An urgent need of multiskilled professionals to solve the infodemic

The spread of the “infodemic” can be as dangerous to human health and security as the pandemic itself. Among other negative consequences, COVID-19 has created conditions that enable the existence of information voids (when people have questions and concerns that remain unanswered), as well as the spread of disinformation, fake news and doctored videos to foment violence and divide communities. It is critical to counter misinformation as a toxic driver of secondary impacts of the pandemic that can heighten the risk of conflict, violence, human rights violations and mass atrocities.

It is also key to pre-empt mis and disinformation spread by understanding the information voids, building resilience of individuals through health and digital literacy to spot the mechanics of mis and disinformation.

To address these challenges, we need to inform action by health authorities so that populations have an enabling environment to enact healthy behaviors, hence allowing the right message to reach the right audience at the right time via the right channel and the right messenger.

For this, infodemic management activities requires a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach implemented by multiskilled professionals. These individuals are rare. That is why during the training, we call them unicorns.

More than 200 participants coming from 82 countries

The trainees have been selected through a global call for application in October 2021 and have started their blended online course on Tuesday 16th of November.

Below are some data about these public health professionals that will work hard during four weeks to obtain their training certificate and to be integrated, if they pass the final evaluation, to the growing infodemic managers’ roster.

  • 249 trainees
  • 42% mid-to-senior level (10+ years) experience
  • 61% female
  • coming from 82 countries, all WHO regions represented, and from partners like US CDC, ECDC, UNICEF, Mercicorps, USAID, IFRC, GAVI, and others
  • 4 weeks, 24 hours of live class time
  • and 36 simulation exercise mentors