RCCE: Risk Communication & Community Engagement

What RCCE is, and why it matters

Risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) is how an emergency response earns trust and helps people protect themselves. Done well, it makes every other part of the response work better: people seek care earlier, accept vaccination, follow safe practices and report cases.

Done badly, or too late, it leaves space for fear, rumors and resistance. Many responses have learned that communities who feel ignored are less likely to cooperate, however strong the medical response is.

It is more than sending messages. It means listening to communities, answering their questions honestly, involving local leaders and groups, and changing the response based on what people say.

Our RCCE services

We support governments, UN agencies, INGOs and local partners across the RCCE cycle:

• Preparedness plans

  Plans that set roles, coordination, channels, messages and budgets before an emergency starts.

• Rapid assessments

  Quick studies on perceptions, trusted sources and barriers to protective behaviors, done in days, not months.

• Message development

  Clear, consistent messages and materials, tested with communities and adapted to languages and literacy levels.

• Community feedback systems

  Ways to collect, analyze and respond to questions, concerns and rumors from many sources.

• Social listening

  Tracking rumors and misinformation online and offline, with regular briefs for the response team.

• Training and mentoring

  Risk communication skills for health promoters, volunteers, county teams and partner staff.

Principles of effective RCCE

Our work follows the core principles set out in international guidance such as the WHO risk communication resources:

• Build trust early. Communicate before rumors take hold, admit uncertainty and update people as facts change.
• Listen first. Understand what communities already believe, fear and need before deciding what to say.
• Use trusted voices. Local leaders, health workers, faith leaders, youth groups and media people already rely on.
• Make it two-way. Give people ways to ask questions and report problems, and show them their feedback changes things.
• Coordinate. Make sure all partners share consistent messages and feedback data.
• Include everyone. Reach people with disabilities, refugees, mobile populations and those who don't speak the main language.

Linking RCCE to behavior change

Emergency communication often asks people to do something difficult at short notice: isolate, accept a new vaccine, change burial practices, treat water or move to safety. These are behavior changes, with the same barriers as any other: cost, access, social pressure, fear and trust.

That is why we bring SBCC tools into emergency work. We use rapid barrier analysis to understand what stops people acting, apply the EAST framework and human-centred design to make protective actions easier, and track behavior, not only reach.

After the acute phase, we help partners turn emergency engagement into longer-term SBCC strategy and community systems that are ready for the next event.

How we support a response

1. 01

   Rapid situation review

   We review the epidemiology, response plans and existing community data within days.

2. 02

   Listen to communities

   Rapid assessments and feedback analysis to understand perceptions, rumors and barriers.

3. 03

   Plan and coordinate

   We help develop or refresh the response plan with clear roles, channels and indicators.

4. 04

   Develop and test messages

   Short, accurate messages and materials, pre-tested and adapted for each audience.

5. 05

   Monitor and adapt

   Regular feedback and behavior tracking, with weekly adjustments to the approach.

Where we work

We are based in Nairobi and support emergency response in Kenya, East Africa and across the continent, remotely or in-country. Our team works with county health departments, national task forces and partner coordination groups.

Planning emergency preparedness or responding to an outbreak? Contact us to discuss support, or see how we work on health communication and immunization.

Preparedness before an emergency

The best time to prepare for an outbreak or disaster is before it happens. We help ministries, counties and partners develop preparedness plans, train spokespeople and community mobilizers, map trusted channels and influencers, and pre-test key messages for likely scenarios such as cholera, measles or flooding. When an emergency starts, these teams can move quickly instead of starting from scratch.

Preparedness also means building relationships with community leaders, media and local organizations in advance, so that trust exists when it is most needed.

Managing rumors and misinformation

In emergencies, rumors spread fast, especially through social media and messaging apps. Effective risk communication tracks rumors and questions, responds quickly with clear and empathetic information, and works through trusted messengers rather than simply repeating official statements. We help teams set up simple rumor tracking systems and response protocols.

Using community feedback in the response

Community feedback is one of the most valuable sources of information in an emergency. Questions, complaints and rumors collected by volunteers, hotlines, radio call-ins and social media tell responders what people understand, what they fear and where services are failing. We help teams collect this feedback in a structured way, analyze it quickly and share short summaries with response pillars every week, so that health, logistics and communication teams can act on it.

Closing the loop matters too. When communities see that their feedback leads to changes, trust in the response grows.