The Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), through its Africa One-ASPIRE program, is currently implementing a project entitled “Living with COVID-19 in Côte d’Ivoire: engaging communities and the public in One Health” with financial support from the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). With the collaboration of Radio Dialogue Citoyens and Radio santé Côte d’Ivoire, it is a platform on which communities can exchange their views on “How to live with COVID-19”, involving scientists, decision-makers and especially communities in order to respond to their concerns. This will enable the co-production of knowledge on how to protect the public, which is suitable for local communities and promotes their buy-in to response measures.

Afrique One-ASPIRE is guided in this project by the principle that the fight against a pandemic such as COVID-19 requires a constructive commitment to allow the co-production of a control strategy based on the context and local realities. The project thus encourages the exchange of information and offers communities the opportunity to share and voice their fears, concerns and stories about the pandemic. It thus aims to reduce the gap between their points of view and to draw experiences for the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Côte d’Ivoire and beyond.

A series of shows are being produced which premiered on August 15, 2020 in Taabo on Radio Taabo. It had the direct participation of administrative authorities, community auditors, health workers from Taabo as well as scientists from Africa One-ASPIRE. More than 1,000 people have been directly reached. The upcoming radio shows concern Bouaké in the Center and Korhogo in the North of the Country.