Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 Cooperative Agreement No: AID-641-A-15-00003
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Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 Cooperative Agreement No: AID-641-A-15-00003 Project dates: November 10, 2014 – November 30, 2019 Reporting Period: October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016 Draft submission date: October 10, 2016 Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................. 2 Acronyms and Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 3 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... 5 Overview of Communicate for Health in Ghana ................................................................................... 7 Social and Behavior Change Communication and Media (ER1) ............................................................. 9 Capacity Building (ER2) ....................................................................................................................... 28 Development of One Local SBCC Organization to be a Recipient of USAID Funding (ER3) .................. 38 Monitoring and Evaluation .................................................................................................................. 42 Partnerships and Coordination ........................................................................................................... 49 Overview of what to expect in Year 3 ................................................................................................. 58 Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 2 Acronyms and Abbreviations AMEP Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan BCS Behavior Change Support CADP Change Agent Development Program CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere CAT Capacity Assessment Tool CBO Community-Based Organization C-Change Communication for Change Project CCF Change Challenge Fund CRS Community Radio Station DHIMS 2 District Health Information Management System 2 FAA Fixed Amount Award FHD Family Health Division FP Family Planning GCRN Ghana Community Radio Network GMCSP Ghana Maternal & Child Survival Project GHS Ghana Health Service GOG Government of Ghana HDHC Healthy Districts and Healthy Communities HP Health Promotion HPD Health Promotion Department HPNO Health, Population, and Nutrition Office HPTO Health Promotion Technical Officer HQ Headquarters HR Human Resources ICC-HP Inter-agency Coordinating Committee for Health Promotion IO Information Officer IPs Implementing Partners IPC Interpersonal Communication IT Information Technology Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 3 IVR Interactive Voice Response LLIN Long-lasting Insecticide-treated Net M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MCH Maternal and Child Health MECOP Monitoring and Evaluation Community of Practice MMDA Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies MOH Ministry of Health NGO Non-Governmental Organization PEPFAR President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief PMI President’s Malaria Initiative PPE Personal Protective Equipment PPME Policy, Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation PSA Public Service Announcement RHPO Regional Health Promotion Officer SBCC Social and Behavior Change Communication SHOPS Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector SPRING Strengthening Programs in Nutrition Globally THPA Top Health Promoter Award TOCAT Technical and Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool TOHPz Technical Officers for Health Promotion UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development USG United States Government WASH Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene WHO World Health Organization Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 4 Executive Summary The USAID Communicate for Heath project was awarded to FHI 360 on November 10, 2014. The present document summarizes activities, results, and challenges of Year 2 (YR 2) of the five-year project. Communicate for Heath is working with the Government of Ghana (GOG), Ghana Health Service Health Promotion Department (GHS/HPD), local Ghanaian partners, and international development partners to 1) Improve behavior change in family planning (FP), water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), nutrition, maternal and child health (MCH) and malaria prevention and case management; 2) Strengthen the capacity of GHS/HPD to effectively coordinate and deliver social and behavior change communication (SBCC) campaigns; and 3) Develop and strengthen the capacity of one SBCC local organization to receive direct USAID funding. Year 2 of the project saw major progress towards all three of Communication for Health’s Expected Results (ERs). Improved behaviors that increase demand for key interventions (ER 1) In Year 2 the project launched the refreshed GoodLife, Live it Well campaign. The campaign embraces a Life Stage approach, addressing in an integrated fashion the perspectives and concerns of four key audience segments. Participatory Action Media workshops in four regions provided a solid formative research base for messages, concepts, and materials. The refreshed brand emphasizes collective responsibility for health and empowers different audiences to make health “an everyday thing”—a habit that can bring happiness and peace of mind. To prepare for the launch, television and radio “teasers” were broadcast in English and local languages across six national television, five national radio and 19 regional radio stations. Orientation and planning meetings were carried out in all ten regions of the country with 1,299 participants. On July 28, Ghana’s Health Minister, Hon. Alexander Segbefia, oversaw the national launch, which was attended by over 700 dignitaries, stakeholders and community members and was covered heavily by both electronic and print media. A post-launch press conference received further substantial coverage. On September 20, the project organized a GoodLife, Live it Well celebration in Tamale for the northern regions of the country which was attended by over 800 people. Television and radio spots, ten posters, a brochure, cue cards, and multiple other media were distributed in connection with the GoodLife launch. Since the national launch and regional rollouts, broadcast of campaign radio and television advertisements have continued to air on primetime and peak-time programs such as morning shows, brunch, drive, news bulletins, soap operas, and print adverts have run in major newspapers. Communicate for Health also participated in other key media activities in YR 2. These included broadcast of a family planning advocacy video documentary entitled Ghana on the Rise: Investing in Population and Development, or ENGAGE, on national TV (produced by the National Population Council (NPC) with support from the Population Reference Bureau). The project worked with UNICEF to raise public awareness about cholera and funded air time for messages. The project is also working with the NPC, Department for International Development (DFID), and Palladium on integration of new GoodLife messages into the popular Ghanaian soap opera series entitled You Only Live Once, or YOLO. Not counting national news coverage, 43,771 TV and radio spots, programs and interviews were aired during this reporting period. Communicate for Health Annual Report: Year 2 5 Finally, the project continued work with the GHS/HPD to update the National Health Communication Information Resource Centre. More than 20 organizations have contributed materials on a range of health topics. A platform for the inventory has been created. Improved HPD technical and organizational capacity (ER 2) The first week-long Change Agent Development Program (CADP) designed to strengthen the technical capacities of select national, regional, and district-level staff was conducted for 23 SBCC practitioners in June of 2016. Pre- and post-training results showed significant improvements in total scores. The Set for Change (SfC) program was also launched in YR 2. The first cohort of ten Technical Officers for Health Promotion (TOHPz) were drawn from the district levels of the GHS. In additional three HPD staff completed a three-month internship program with the creative agency, Mullen Lowe. Finally, process was made towards establishing the Change Challenge Fund (CCF), a performance-based award to be made available to 10 to 15 CAPD or SfC graduates to apply their learning in real program settings. The final draft of the CCF guidelines has been shared with HPD for their inputs. The CCF will be launched in YR 3. Improved technical and organizational capacity of one local SBCC organization (ER 3) In June 2016 the project conducted a two-stage competitive process to identify a local Ghanaian SBCC organization that will assume increasing technical and managerial responsibility for the project and will eventually transition to direct USAID funding. The Head of the HPD participated in reviewing the candidates. Based on predetermined selection criteria, the procurement committee agreed provisionally on a winning applicant, pending the outcome of a pre-award assessment and concurrence by USAID/Ghana. Monitoring & Evaluation Communicate for Health finalized the project’s Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (AMEP) and is awaiting approval by USAID. In December a working group including the project, Ghana Health Service Health Promotion Department (GHS/HPD), Family Health Division (FHD), and Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation