Kingdom of Eswatini
April 2021 – July 2023
Background
With support from USAID and The Coca-Cola Foundation, Project Last Mile partnered with Eswatini’s Ministry of Health to boost demand for the COVID-19 vaccine. In 2021, challenges such as conspiracy theories, health misconceptions, and religious beliefs regarding vaccine safety and efficacy, especially among young people, hindered COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
Initially, Project Last Mile focused its technical assistance on strategic marketing to deliver targeted COVID-19 vaccine messages to individuals living with HIV and other health conditions. This evolved into a digital campaign that extensively utilized response data to combat COVID-19 misconceptions by adjusting campaign targeting, messaging, and influencers based on insights.
Project Last Mile also organized wellness and vaccination events through private sector partnerships to reach the working population who had not yet been vaccinated.
Results
- Over 580,000 users were reached on Facebook.
- The project administered 487 COVID-19 vaccinations, 45% of which were first-time vaccinations.
- Over 56 million combined impressions on Facebook and Instagram.
- 54% of event attendees brought an additional person with them, and 81% of event attendees stated that their primary motivation for attending was to get vaccinated.
- 851,000 clicks to the Ministry of Health’s vaccine registration portal.
This information originally appeared in the 2023 Annual Report.