The Health with Science Programme experience: Information integrity in the Global South
Information integrity is a fundamental pillar of public health. In the Global South, its importance becomes even more evident against a historical backdrop of structural inequality, systematic disinformation and the erasure of traditional community knowledge. Here, where the effects of social inequities manifest themselves most starkly, ensuring access to high-quality scientific information is a matter of survival – and justice.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we experienced what could be called a global infodemic. However, the impacts of disinformation were not homogeneous. In the Global South, the absence of robust public health communication policies, coupled with limited digital access, facilitated the spread of so-called fake news and hindered community engagement in evidence-based practices. And this is not accidental. Disinformation here is fuelled by political and economic interests that benefit from information disarray.
Therefore, effective strategies to promote access to information and to produce and verify that information in the Global South must begin by recognising the centrality of communities. Science must stand with the people. This requires public policy that invests in scientific and media literacy, strengthens local knowledge production networks, and values traditional knowledge, which is often delegitimised by conventional science. Communication must use accessible language, be culturally relevant and be delivered in multiple formats – community radio, podcasts, booklets, social media and so on – that genuinely engage with local realities.
A community-driven approach
Latin American experiences in facing Covid-19 demonstrated the strength of public health systems, such as Brazil’s public health system (SUS) and localised solidarity networks. Brazil’s use of community health agents offers a model for how information can circulate ethically, sensitively and in a decentralised manner, according to the needs of the people. These practices are valuable lessons for the world: we fight disinformation not only with technology, but also with bonds, trust and social participation.
In 2023, the Brazilian government established the Committee for Combating Disinformation about the National Immunisation Programme and Public Health Policies. This committee includes the Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic; the Office of the Attorney General; the Office of the Comptroller General; the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation; the Ministry of Justice and Public Security; and the Ministry of Health.
This was Brazil’s first experience of interministerial integration. Collaboration focused on five actions:
- Supporting the Ministry of Health in analysing and evaluating communication strategies regarding the National Immunisation Programme (PNI) and public health policies;
- Promoting and supporting strategies to defend the PNI and public health policies against disinformation;
- Forwarding to competent authorities any information regarding disinformation related to the PNI;
- Assisting in gathering evidence to support legal measures against disinformation about the PNI, as well as proposing research and monitoring actions on public debate in digital spaces;
- Proposing technical and methodological resources for creating public policies to combat disinformation about the PNI and other public health policies.
The Ministry of Health also launched Saúde com Ciência (Health with Science) in 2023, with the slogan: ‘Protect your health. Don’t share disinformation’. Using an integrated approach, Saúde com Ciência and the Committee to Combat Disinformation established five action pillars: strategic communication; training and capacity building; institutional cooperation; monitoring, analysis and research; and accountability.
The first pillar aims to create communication channels targeted at specific audiences, to deliver more focused content using widely known public figures, community radio stations and communicators from marginalised communities.
The second pillar focuses on training professionals from both formal and informal media to analyse scientific texts and actively combat disinformation. The third pillar involves the establishment of public-private partnerships and collaboration with civil society to analyse and disseminate information with integrity.
The fourth pillar involves the analysis of relevant sources and the establishment of agreements for scientific research on disinformation. The fifth pillar is dedicated to the legal investigation and accountability of individuals and companies that have spread disinformation constituting crimes against public health.
Ultimately, combating disinformation in the Global South is about recognising that knowledge production must serve life. We need open, democratic science committed to equity. Information with integrity saves lives – and health with science must be for everyone, especially those who have historically been left behind.
