The response is like a big ship': community feedback as a case study of evidence uptake and use in the 2018-2020 Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Introduction: The 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) took place in the highly complex protracted crisis regions of North Kivu and Ituri. The Red Cross developed a community feedback (CF) data collection process through the work of hundreds of Red Cross personnel, who gathered unprompted feedback in order to inform the response coordination mechanism and decision-making.

Aim: To understand how a new CF system was used to make operational and strategic decisions by Ebola response leadership.

New Mixed Methods Approach for Monitoring Community Perceptions of Ebola and Response Efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Background: Efforts to contain the spread of Ebola in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the 2018-2020 epidemic faced challenges in gaining community trust and participation. This affected implementation of community alerts, early isolation, contact tracing, vaccination, and safe and dignified burials. To quickly understand community perspectives and improve community engagement, collaborators from the DRC Red Cross, the International Federation of the Red Cross, and the U.