Background On the account of limited doses of COVID-19 available to the country, the Government of Ghana created a priority list of persons to target for its vaccination agenda. In this paper, we look at trust and how it informs willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine among persons targeted for the first phase of COVID-19 vaccination program in Ghana. Methods A sequential mixed-method investigation was conducted among the priority population - persons 60 years and above, frontline government functionaries, health workers, persons with underlying health conditions and, religious leaders and teachers. We sampled 415 respondents from the target population for a survey and 15 religious and traditional leaders from three cities; Accra, Cape Coast and Tamale for follow-up in-depth interviews based on the results of the survey data. Quantitative data is presented with descriptive proportions and multinomial logistic regression and thematic approach is applied to the interview data. Results Trust and willingness to take the vaccine are high in this priority population. Trust in the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, rather than socioeconomic characteristics of respondents better predicted acceptance. From interview narratives, mistrust in political actors - both local and foreign, believe in superior protection of God and seeming misunderstanding of vaccine development processes countermand acceptance. On the other hand, the professional influence of people in one’s social networks, and past triumphs of vaccination programmes against concerning childhood diseases embed trust and acceptance. Conclusions Attention ought to be given to trust enhancing triggers while strategic communication approaches are used to remove triggers of mistrust.

Background Infodemic management is an integral part of pandemic management. Ghana Health Services (GHS) together with the UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) Country Office have developed a systematic process that effectively identifies, analyzes, and responds to COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation in Ghana. Objective This paper describes an infodemic management system workflow based on digital data collection, qualitative methodology, and human-centered systems to support the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Ghana with examples of system implementation. Methods The infodemic management system was developed by the Health Promotion Division of the GHS and the UNICEF Country Office. It uses Talkwalker, a social listening software platform, to collect misinformation on the web. The methodology relies on qualitative data analysis and interpretation as well as knowledge cocreation to verify the findings. Results A multi-sectoral National Misinformation Task Force was established to implement and oversee the misinformation management system. Two members of the task force were responsible for carrying out the analysis. They used Talkwalker to find posts that include the keywords related to COVID-19 vaccine–related discussions. They then assessed the significance of the posts on the basis of the engagement rate and potential reach of the posts, negative sentiments, and contextual factors. The process continues by identifying misinformation within the posts, rating the risk of identified misinformation posts, and developing proposed responses to address them. The results of the analysis are shared weekly with the Misinformation Task Force for their review and verification to ensure that the risk assessment and responses are feasible, practical, and acceptable in the context of Ghana. Conclusions The paper describes an infodemic management system workflow in Ghana based on qualitative data synthesis that can be used to manage real-time infodemic responses.

This qualitative study explores how religious leaders in Ghana view polio and polio vaccine–related knowledge and perceptions of the community members. It also examines the personal characteristics of those who are most likely to accept or reject the vaccine. On the basis of the findings, this study provides a set of evidence-based recommendations to support religious leaders’ efforts to create polio vaccine demand in their communities. The study is based on focus group discussions conducted with religious leaders from various geographic locations across Ghana. The discussions were transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically. Twenty religious leaders, including Christian, Muslim, and leaders of traditional African religions, participated in the study. The findings show that both religious leaders and community members lack knowledge and have multiple culturally and religiously influenced explanations for polio. In addition, the findings reveal that vaccine safety and efficacy are linked to emotional narratives, and receiving the polio vaccine is not a social norm in all communities. Educated mothers in urban settings were identified as those most receptive to the polio vaccine. To create polio vaccine demand, religious leaders need to combat misinformation and the negative perceptions about the vaccine. Recommendations include conveying high-quality information to community members, developing tactics to address culturally and religiously sensitive matters, using emotionally inspired personal accounts to enhance positive attitudes toward polio vaccines and act as catalysts for positive social norms towards the polio vaccine. Educated mothers from urban areas can be engaged as champions in vaccine demand creation.

BACKGROUND Infodemic management is an integral part of pandemic management. The Ghana Health Services (GHS) together with the UNICEF Country Office have developed a systematic process that effectively identifies, analyses, and responds to COVID-19 and vaccine-related misinformation in Ghana. OBJECTIVE This paper describes the infodemic management system in Ghana and explains how the system is implemented to support COVID-19 vaccine rollout programming in Ghana. METHODS The infodemic management system is based on collecting social media data through a digital platform (Talkwalker), analysis of the data, and review of the findings by experts, followed by verification of the findings and knowledge co-creation of appropriate infodemic responses through a multisectoral task force. The system is based on four steps: 1) social listening to identify misinformation, 2) risk assessment and proposal for appropriate responses by experts, 3) verification and knowledge co-creation of appropriate responses, and 4) implementation of infodemic responses. RESULTS Data was based on COVID-19 social media public posts and online resources identified by UNICEF Talkwalker in Ghana during the period of May-November 2021. The demographics of those whose posts on Talkwalker identified are 25-34 years old, 70% male and 30% female. The Talkwalker system detected different kinds of fake information including misinformation, disinformation and posts that could potentially reduce public trust towards the health systems and the COVID-19 vaccination program. CONCLUSIONS The Ghanaian infodemic management system is a functional and sustained system that is able to develop culturally appropriate infodemic responses that can be replicated in other countries in the world. CLINICALTRIAL NA

Reporting child sexual abuse (CSA) to law enforcement institutions is the ideal child protection imperative. The role of parents in this process is unquestionably profound. Yet, there is limited evidence on parental perspectives on reporting CSA to law enforcement agencies in developing country contexts. We apply vignettes to describe the views of parents about reporting CSA perpetrated by “family members, schoolteachers, and strangers.” Data was collected from 89 parents from four culturally diverse regions of Ghana. A systematic inductive approach was used to determine patterns and similarities in participants’ attitudes toward reporting. We note that the attitudes of participants about reporting CSA varied considerably; these are influenced by the nature of social relationships between the victim and perpetrator. In a seeming order of severity, CSA perpetrated by a family member was viewed less seriously compared to victimization by a teacher or a stranger. The desire to preserve familial/kin ties and reputation and keeping to the cultural heritage of resolving “disputes and disagreements” amicably were primary norms against reporting CSA. However, attitudes toward reporting CSA by teachers were influenced by expectation of higher moral standards, which made reporting CSA by a teacher a reasonable cause of action. Positive attitudes toward reporting CSA by “strangers” were prevalent. Child protection programs must recognzse the segmented attitudes toward CSA and tackle the deep-seated cultural and social norms through social and behavioral change communication (SBCC).

We studied the caring, parenting, and support services for children with special needs in Ghana. Many of the study participants reported re-adjusting their lives in virtually every domain–social, economic, and emotional to deal with and manage the new realities. How parents navigate this space varied considerably from setting to setting. Regardless of individual and interpersonal resources, community, institutional, and policy circumstances seemed to exacerbate notions of disability. In many instances, parents had a low depth of suspicion about the precursors to disabling events in their children. Parents are constantly pursuing health care, including a cure for their children with disabilities. Views about “otherness” were noted, and these tended to undermine medical interpretations/explanations of disability generally, which in turn affected formal education and health-seeking for children. Institutional arrangements exist to encourage parents to invest in their children regardless of their perceived abilities. However, these do not seem to be sufficient, particularly for health and formal education. Programming and policy implications are highlighted.

Abstract. The use of social media is gradually becoming an integral part of the educational process in higher education institutions. In Ukraine, the most popular for this purpose are Facebook and Twitter, but Instagram is also being increasingly used. This enables not only to introduce the integration element into learning, but also the rapid distribution of teaching materials, almost instant communication with students and attract the maximum number of students to educational projects. Modern education requires the modernization and systematic introduction of new communication technologies in the educational process. It should be noted that the present time dictates its standards and rules not only in the market of media or Internet communications, but also directly applied to the educational process in higher education institutions. It should be noted that the dynamic development of social networks contributed to the development of the teaching and learning process: the development of distance learning in Ukraine, creation of on-line libraries and information repositories, free lessons at certain courses (registration on the university library website and the possibility of round-the-clock access to the course of lectures, student guidelines, textbooks, etc.), systematic on-line communication with the teacher, participation in conferences and webinars. Today, social networks are a server that holds the greatest attention of the consumer audience of different ages.