Many thousands of COVID-19-focused communication and community engagement strategies have been implemented across all countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the hope of spotlighting these efforts and advocating for the centralisation of such approaches within the overall pandemic response, on March 21 2021, a group of 24 experts in the field of communication for social change and behaviour change participated online in the COVID-19 Independent Panel Roundtable on Communication and Community Engagement. The specific purpose of their participation was to help guide the work of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which was established in September 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General with the aim of exploring how and why COVID-19 became a global pandemic and what lessons can be learned. The 24 experts talked with the Independent Panel members about…more