Learning through uncertainty: From pandemic networks to vaccine chatbots
A blog by Pippa Ranger, a Frontier Tech Pioneer
During the C19 pandemic, millions of children around the world missed routine vaccines and other vulnerable groups, especially women and children, experienced reduced access to vital health services.
As part of my work in the Research & Evidence Division at FCDO, I was noticing that traditional behaviour change and communications interventions alone might not be sufficient to support the catch up in healthcare outcomes sorely needed when the most acute pressure of the pandemic was over.
In addition, amongst the development community emerged a growing realisation of the need to build community resilience in order to respond to inevitable future crises, where for example face to face contact with community health workers may not be possible or mis/disinformation could affect decision making. It got me thinking... How can we continue to build on the learning and advances in technology and behavioural science made during the pandemic?
Embracing innovation catalysed by collaboration
Fast forward and I am embarking on a Frontier Tech pilot that will explore the question: Can a chatbot improve the effectiveness and efficiency of vaccine uptake?
The Frontier Tech Hub will be working with HelpMum and the Behavioural Insight Team in Nigeria to test ways to incorporate behavioural science and AI into HelpMum's existing immunisation chatbot.
Together, we will be exploring whether and how a behaviourally informed and AI-driven WhatsApp chatbot could better support carers and community health workers, and ultimately help increase childhood vaccination rates.
Credit: HelpMum
Getting to the idea of this pilot didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of a brilliant network of change makers that came together to improve the pandemic response through the real time application of behaviourally informed approaches along with continuous learning and adaptation.
In 2020, as the headlines and the soaring statistics evolved, I was invited by health and WASH colleagues to join a weekly virtual 30 minute gathering of 100+ policy makers, implementers, academics, behavioural scientists and more, supporting each other through the struggles, uncertainties and breakthroughs of this global crisis.
The group was and still is, albeit in a slightly different form, the C19 Behaviour Change Forum, which I later ended up leading.
During the pandemic, we gathered regularly as a Forum to share the latest informal findings on what was working and where when it came to instilling handwashing practices and later supporting vaccine uptake.
The Forum was closely connected with the Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC), a flagship public-private partnership between FCDO and Unilever, which brought together academics, NGOs, international organisations and delivery partners across 37 countries to deliver and improve WASH programming and interventions, along with the Hygiene Hub at LSHTM, our active learning partner and global Helpdesk, and Vaccine Data CoLab, our data-for-decision-making partners.
Along with spanning expertise, this community spanned geographical location and ranged from global actors like Unilever, Hygiene Hub at LSHTM, BBC Media Action, UN Innovation Network, Save the Children, GIZ, Amref, UK Cabinet Office and WaterAid to their local counterparts and FCDO Country teams, all vital perspectives when it came to connecting global guidance to local realities.
It became an invaluable active learning network that helped many partners and colleagues to navigate the uncertainties and challenges of the pandemic in real time.
Together we hosted a long running series of popular Behaviour Change webinars and learning journeys, and co-produced guidance, alongside our regular forum calls to enable wider knowledge exchange and strengthen capabilities to support those involved in the response.
Through one of these later learning journeys with our Hygiene Behaviour Change Coalition (HBCC2) partners at the Hygiene Hub, Unilever and Vaccine Data CoLab we also explored The Future of Behaviour Change.
Credit: Better Futures CoLab
We began to answer questions of how organisations design and deliver hygiene programming and strengthen systems long-term, and how we might build on the advances in behavioural science made during the pandemic for wider application, particularly in LMICs.
Our learning journey surfaced valuable insights. One of these insights was that we must continue to use multiple tailored delivery channels and embrace innovation, including AI in behaviour change. The chatbot is something that we have been able to kick start in response to this insight.
This chatbot collaboration with HelpMum and the Behavioural Insights Team will leverage artificial intelligence and behavioural science to help improve immunisation outcomes for children in Nigeria.
What next?
Help Mum and Behavioural Insights Team will test various strategies to optimise the effectiveness of the immunisation chatbot.
This might involve tailoring messaging to address specific cultural norms and beliefs, including behavioural designed elements to encourage timely vaccination, and using AI to personalise interaction and enable the chatbot to scale.
Along with real world impact, we hope the pilot will help us surface greater learning and tools on the application of behavioural science and AI to improve the uptake of immunisation programmes and other public health services across the sector.
Stay tuned for my next blog posts where we will talk more about our Vaccine Chatbot pilot and the learnings from the Behaviour Change Forum.
If you’d like to dig in further…
🚀 Visit this pilot’s profile page
💉 Learn about the Vaccines Data CoLab
👋 Learn more about the partners by visiting HelpMum’s website and exploring’s BIT’s Roadmap for AI & BI
📚 Read two learning briefs on Hygiene Hub Vaccine Promotion and improving vaccine uptake through data-driven decision-making