Nearly a million Rohingya people still live in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Having survived terrible violence, they now face the dual threats of the first confirmed cases of COVID-19, and flooding and landslides from Cyclone Amphan. Here is how Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action is helping people prepare and cope.

Bangladesh is well-versed in cyclone preparation – but preparing for a cyclone in a time of global pandemic is something that perhaps no one in living memory has done before.

Cyclone Amphan has not hit Cox’s Bazar directly, but the camps have still been affected by high winds, heavy rain and flooding. And across Bangladesh, the choices have been stark: evacuate an estimated 2 million people in coastal areas into crowded shelters and risk spreading COVID-19, or continue strict physical distancing and risk more people dying in this enormous storm.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action’s work on preparing for natural threats like cyclones in Bangladesh dates back to 2013. We work closely with government and other agencies, using media and communication to ensure our audiences understand what to do, where to go and how to seek help before, during and after a cyclone.

In coastal areas, people are well-versed in evacuation procedures thanks in part to trusted information carried on local media – it is information that has saved lives.

But because of COVID-19, our team has had to move quickly to redesign procedures and advice to reflect the additional threats posed by the virus, and then to ensure these are communicated to people clearly so that they understand and adapt accordingly.

In the aftermath of a cyclone, people need access to clean water – often requiring purification drops or tablets – as well as food, sanitation, emergency shelter and medical help. All of these procedures and practices now need to be adapted to the risk of COVID-19, so that we don’t advise people to do anything that might be harmful.

In Cox’s Bazar, with the first few cases of COVID-19 now confirmed, people are already worried. Our teams have been working hard to explain the concepts of isolation and quarantine – to show what’s inside an isolation centre, for instance, and to talk to doctors and health-care workers so that the idea of seeking medical help is less frightening. to find out their concerns, and share these across other humanitarian agencies so they can respond and adapt to community needs.

At the same time, we’re providing information in local language about what emergency cyclone warnings mean, where and how to evacuate, and critical survival information – including water purification, hygiene practices, and avoiding waterborne diseases.

We’ve also supported health workers by producing easy to understand videos on hygiene practices in health settings and how to safely use PPE.

These are incredibly challenging times in which to work, especially when our staff are facing movement restrictions and their own challenges in keeping safe and healthy.

We’ve adapted the way we work and deliver our programming, delivering much of our support to the humanitarian sector in online sessions – covering solutions for how NGOs can continue to communicate and respond with the Rohingya population amid physical distancing restrictions.

Every second counts in a crisis. Experience and expertise in local contexts and cultures, and strong relationships with donors, NGOs, local governments and communities themselves, make all the difference in moving quickly to save lives with trusted information.

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Richard Lace is the Country Director for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action Bangladesh.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action has been working on COVID-19 response in Bangladesh, including Cox’s Bazar, with the support of H2H, funded through the Department for International Development.

Our work in Cox’s Bazar, where we work with Translators Without Borders and Ground Truth Solutions, is funded through EU Humanitarian Aid in partnership with Action Against Hunger; DFID through UNOPS, and UNHCR.

 

To coincide with World Humanitarian Day, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action has launched a new , which uses data from six of its humanitarian evaluations to build evidence on how media can help people affected by crises. This blog originally appeared on.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action has been broadcasting ‘Lifeline’ programmes to support communities affected by humanitarian crises since 2001.

Research is central to how Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action works. Understanding the needs and priorities of the audience is crucial for developing good media content, and rigorous research helps us understand programmes’ impact. This dedication to audience research, even in crisis situations, was one of the things that really struck me when I started working at Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action four years ago.

In 2015, the organisation decided to pull together data from four humanitarian project evaluations, to understand for audiences affected by crises across the world. This synthesis involved recoding qualitative data from these evaluations into a , which applies the (which are widely used in humanitarian evaluations) to media interventions.

We have now expanded what started as a into a , with data and videos illustrating humanitarian programming from crises in Lebanon and Jordan, Gaza, West Africa, Nepal, Somalia and Bangladesh.

For me, the most interesting finding is the similarity in how people affected by different crises feel about Lifeline programmes. People appreciated hearing voices of people like them sharing their experiences and solutions. Many said that the programmes made them feel more hopeful and less isolated. The synthesis has helped us understand to people affected by crisis, namely accurate, practical information; empathetic presenters who speak the language of the listener and represent their situation fully; and having a platform to voice concerns and hold government and aid agencies to account.

It has also highlighted challenges: while mass media is good at reaching many people quickly on a wide range of topics, it struggles to provide hyper localised information, such as the status of health clinics or where to buy building materials. This is where partnerships between local media and humanitarian partners are so important, and much of the evidence speaks to the importance of strong partnerships. For example, audiences say they trust information when they hear the same thing from different sources.

Coordination between media and humanitarian partners on the ground is crucial to achieve consistency, and programme makers are reliant on humanitarian partners sharing up-to-date, reliable information on air. The benefits of building trust between humanitarian and media partners before a crisis are discussed in the ‘’ case studies on the microsite.

Partnerships are important in research too. Sharing research in crises helps us to build the evidence on what role communication initiatives can play. For example, in the Rohingya response, similar studies carried out by Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action and our partners Internews and Translators without Borders at different time points, have shown a steady increase in the proportion of Rohingya refugees who feel they have enough information to make decisions for themselves and their families – providing evidence that our project is doing something right.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Media Action uses a to guide our evaluation of humanitarian projects. This allows us to systematically build the evidence base for the role of media in a crisis. We hope that humanitarian and media partners will use and build on this framework, so that we can continue to develop our understanding of what does and doesn’t work during these crises, and work together to build an evidence base that will improve decision making in the future.