Strengthening Vaccine Confidence in the Digital Age
The 2025 Digital Community Engagement (DCE) Strategy Workshop brought together UNICEF teams and partners to refine strategies for combating vaccine misinformation and boosting confidence through digital channels. DCE, a core extension of SBC efforts, uses real-time social listening, rapid response, and trusted digital voices to counter false narratives and reach communities effectively. The workshop emphasized practical skills—from anticipating misinformation to crafting localized responses—and reinforced the importance of community-led digital mobilization. As DCE scales up, it remains central to UNICEF’s mission to ensure every child is protected through accurate, timely, and trusted health information.
The Power of Digital Community Engagement in Public Health
In an era where misinformation spreads faster than ever, vaccine hesitancy remains a significant challenge. While traditional social and behavior change (SBC) strategies continue to play a vital role, digital engagement is becoming increasingly essential in ensuring accurate health information reaches communities before misinformation takes hold.
This is where UNICEF’s Digital Community Engagement (DCE) initiative comes in – a structured, data-driven approach that monitors, responds to, and counters misinformation while mobilizing trusted digital voices to build vaccine confidence.
To refine its strategies and equip teams with practical tools, UNICEF’s Polio SBC Team hosted the 2025 DCE Strategy Workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together global and country teams, digital communication specialists, and social mobilization experts for an interactive, hands-on engagement.
Digital Community Engagement: A Proactive Approach to Countering Misinformation
DCE serves as a digital-first extension of UNICEF’s SBC strategy, designed to strengthen vaccine demand and combat misinformation using five key pillars:
- Listen – Tracking misinformation in real time using AI-driven social listening tools.
- Respond – Deploying accurate, audience-tailored messaging to counter false narratives.
- Distribute – Using targeted digital outreach and audience segmentation to reach the right people.
- Mobilize – Engaging local influencers, trusted community voices, and digital volunteers.
- Learn – Continuously analyzing data and refining digital engagement strategies.
Impact so far: In 2023 alone, DCE reached over 43 million people, leading to a 23% boost in vaccine confidence across key regions.
This was made possible through a network of 77,000 micro-influencers and digital volunteers, who help amplify accurate vaccine messaging in their communities.
Key Insights from the 2025 DCE Strategy Workshop
The two-day workshop was designed to strengthen DCE strategies, enhance field capacity, and provide hands-on experience in responding to misinformation. Sessions included a deep dive into DCE methodologies, a real-time simulation exercise, and a collaborative action-planning session to ensure country teams had clear next steps.
1. Social Listening: Identifying Misinformation Before It Spreads
One of DCE’s most powerful tools is its social listening system, which enables teams to track misinformation trends and categorize them based on risk levels.
Key takeaway: Instead of reacting to misinformation after it spreads, teams can anticipate and address concerns before they escalate.
“I support digital communication and innovations like DCE. One of its greatest strengths is social listening – a core element I truly admire. SBC is more about listening than speaking, and DCE helps us do just that. With its potential, we can anticipate and address concerns early, and design better solutions for communities.”
2. Simulation Exercise: Rapid Response to a Misinformation Crisis
A highlight of the workshop was a real-world simulation exercise, where participants had to respond to a fictional but realistic misinformation outbreak about polio vaccines.
- Teams identified emerging vaccine myths circulating online.
- They crafted localized, culturally relevant counter-messaging.
- Participants created targeted digital campaigns for WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter.
Key takeaway: Effective misinformation response requires speed, clarity, and audience-specific messaging.
“This exercise showed us the importance of localized responses – what works in one country might not work in another."
3. Mobilizing Trusted Digital Voices for Vaccine Confidence
Participants explored how engaging trusted community members in digital spaces can be more effective than institutional messaging.
- DCE’s digital volunteers act as credible messengers, ensuring accurate information reaches communities through familiar, trusted sources.
- The workshop emphasized how to recruit, train, and support these digital influencers.
Key takeaway: Peer-to-peer engagement is essential for countering misinformation.
"People trust information when it comes from someone they relate to. That’s why engaging community voices is essential in digital engagement."
What’s Next? Strengthening DCE for Future Impact
The workshop concluded with a collaborative action-planning session, ensuring that country teams had concrete next steps for strengthening DCE in their regions.
- Expanding social listening capabilities to track misinformation in more local languages.
- Developing country-specific misinformation response strategies based on regional needs.
- Enhancing partnerships with digital influencers and community leaders to increase reach and credibility.
- Tracking impact through data collection and analytics.
"DCE is about meeting communities where they are -online and offline. By strengthening these strategies, we ensure vaccine confidence remains strong in the face of misinformation."
Building a Digital-First Future for Vaccine Confidence
The 2025 DCE Strategy Workshop reinforced the importance of a proactive, data-driven approach to countering misinformation and strengthening vaccine confidence.
- DCE ensures timely, targeted, and trusted health information reaches communities before misinformation takes hold.
- Workshops like this help build local expertise, equipping country teams with the tools needed to combat misinformation effectively.
- By integrating digital engagement into broader SBC efforts, UNICEF can ensure that every child, everywhere, receives life-saving vaccines.
"Digital Community Engagement enhances traditional SBC efforts by making vaccine communication faster and more responsive. It works in real time – tracking misinformation, analyzing trends, and ensuring accurate health information reaches communities before false narratives take hold. This approach strengthens trust and helps sustain vaccine confidence."
The next step? Scaling these efforts to ensure that every child, everywhere, is protected.
Explore the DCE Strategy 2025-2026 to learn more about the approach, and access key tools and resources on the DCE Portal. Connect with the DCE team to exchange insights, collaborate, and strengthen digital engagement efforts: [email protected]