---
id: "coronavirus-smarter-crowdsourcing:strategies/National-and-state-governments-should-work-with-lo"
type: "GovLab policy strategy"
title: "National and state governments should work with local governments,universities,companies and community…"
url: "https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/strategies/national-and-state-governments-should-work-with-lo"
summary: "National and state governments should work with local governments,universities,companies and community activists to focus on making differences at the local and community level. Where possible,messaging should be targeted to specific populations and groups to ensure it is relevant and resonates with those individuals."
source: "The GovLab (coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# National and state governments should work with local governments,universities,companies and community…

National and state governments should work with local governments,universities,companies and community activists to focus on making differences at the local and community level. Where possible,messaging should be targeted to specific populations and groups to ensure it is relevant and resonates with those individuals.

- Timeframe: 1-3 Months (immediate)
- Audience: Private Sector, Academia, Civil Society, Healthcare Providers, Organized Civil Society, Nonprofits
- Type: Research, Policy/Legislative/Regulatory, Communications, Partnerships
- Recommendation: [Community and stakeholder engagement](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/recommendations/community-and-stakeholder-engagement)
- Part of: [Smarter Crowdsourcing in the Age of Coronavirus](https://coronavirus.smartercrowdsourcing.org/)

## Actions governments should take

1. Identify the target audience.. Audiences can be specific ages, demographics, geographic communities, language groups, etc.
2. Define the groups as specifically as possible (geographically, racially/ethnically, age breakdown, sex/gender, language groups, etc.).
3. Identify communications tools that are most effective at reaching these target audiences. These may include social media, television, radio, paper pamphlets, SMS, etc. Online tools like google ads may be particularly effective at reaching multiple audiences with targeted messages.
4. [Study the effectiveness of messaging through monitoring and evaluation tools (see testing messaging).](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DzmSxBT6rqoewafUMNmdEHmjYREZ0bLnqr4JCIP1ZgE/edit#heading=h.3ojt37altr3i)
5. Work with other levels of government to coordinate with local actors.

## Examples from around the world

1. [The UN Global Pulse team in Uganda is using AI and radio monitoring technology to identify COVID-19 keywords spoken in the local dialect. This information is then used to tailor their COVID-19 response to the specific discourse happening at the local level. Applying this global tool to specific contents allowed them to monitor for outbreaks, manage misinformation, and report on social and economic impact.](https://www.unglobalpulse.org/2020/05/using-speech-to-text-technology-to-support-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic/)