About Behavioral Outbreak Sentinel Surveillance (BOSS)

BOSS is a rapid digital behavioral surveillance platform deployed across multiple urban sentinel cities via Facebook and Instagram targeting. Approximately 200 respondents per city per week complete a 20-question pulse survey covering four tracking domains: awareness diffusion, behavioral disruption, information environment, and underlying concerns driving behavior change. Surveys are administered in English and French. ABSN Champions — practitioners trained through the Africa Behavioral Science Network across 25 countries — are embedded in the interpretation loop after each wave, providing on-the-ground context for quantitative findings. The instrument is adapted on a rolling basis as data signals evolve.

Current sentinel cities: Lagos, Abuja, Benin City (Nigeria) · Kampala (Uganda) · Kinshasa, Goma (DRC) · Johannesburg (South Africa)

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BOSS Reports

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    Lagos BOSS Report

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    BOSS False Information Report

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    Kampala BOSS Report

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    Johannesburg BOSS Report

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  • "The channel architecture of each city's information environment — the ratio of broadcast to social network reliance — is the structural variable that determines how much false information penetrates the population. This difference shapes everything that follows."

    —False Information BOSS Report

  • "Church attendance independently predicts worry even after controlling for how close Ebola is in the social network. The mosque and church are not merely information channels — they are settings where bodies are close, voices carry, and collective emotion is amplified."

    —Lagos BOSS Report

  • "Religious leaders in Kampala are relevant not because their settings are producing anxiety but because their settings are being watched. Modeling visible, normative protective behavior is the intervention — not delivering fear-based messaging to an already-worried congregation."

    —Kampala BOSS Report