Stewart Kettle | 07 May 2025
Remember the first few weeks of COVID-19? When questions raced faster than answers: How does it spread? Should we disinfect our groceries? Will masks help? And when guidance changed by the day. Now imagine trying to respond to that kind of outbreak without insights into what people are hearing, believing, or doing at the time.
Weeks later when qualitative findings come in, they’re likely out of date. Your window to act has closed.
That's why speed matters in a health emergency - and why, in the face of a rising Mpox threat in East Africa, UNICEF and Colectiv took a new approach.
In September 2024, Mpox cases were rising in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and spilling into neighbouring countries. The Tanzanian government and UNICEF acted quickly to prepare, but understanding how communities and health workers were responding, required more than a survey.
Qualitative interviews are essential for uncovering how people think and act in fast-moving crises. But they often take a long time to analyse, or organisations like UNICEF just don't have the capacity at the time. By the time insights reach decision-makers, the moment to act on them might have passed.
To close that gap between interviews and action, we tried something new. UNICEF's team conducted 26 in-depth interviews in KiSwahili across six Tanzanian regions with health workers on the frontline of Mpox preparedness. These in-person interviews were then transcribed, before rapid analysis using Colectiv's AI-assisted qualitative tools.
Rather than weeks of manual coding, we were able to thematically analyse the interviews within four hours. This allowed UNICEF teams to search transcripts by theme, keyword, and location, to surface current insights, like confusion between Mpox and chickenpox, and the challenge of changing physical contact habits in a society where handshakes and hugs are the norm.
Health workers were concerned. Communities, not so much. Mpox was often dismissed as another rash, and the name itself was unfamiliar.
Several insights stood out from the rapid analysis. Health workers emphasised that people struggled to recognise Mpox symptoms because they resembled other familiar diseases like chickenpox. Even those aware of Mpox faced mixed messages about how to respond. Public health advice to avoid crowded buses and physical greetings conflicted with Tanzanian social norms and daily economic realities - where handshakes, hugs, and crowded marketplaces are central to everyday life.
Given this context, promoting a long list of precautions was potentially ineffective. The interviews suggested that public health messaging needed to become simpler, clearer, and more actionable. We recommended promoting one clear, memorable action: "Call 199 if you have an unusual rash with fever." You can read more in our full report here, or UNICEF's write-up here.
In any emergency, time is of the essence. But that doesn't mean we should sacrifice depth. Insights grounded in lived experience - how people understand risk, how social norms shape action, what support health workers need - are crucial for shaping effective public health responses.
This project showed that with the right tools and approach, we don't have to choose between speed and substance. We can keep the benefits of qualitative research and still move at the pace public health demands.
