• Country Overview
• Current Projects
• Materials and Resources

COUNTRY OVERVIEW

The population of Ghana is currently 15.8 million with an estimated doubling time of 24 years. Preliminary Ghana 1998 DHS findings showed a lower modern contraceptive prevalence rate (13-14%) than recorded in 1995 under the Family Planning and Health Follow-up survey (19%). This decline has been attributed to the lack of access to accurate information on family planning (FP) and HIV/AIDS, an assertion supported by data revealing an HIV prevalence rate of 4.6% in 1999. Access to child health information and utilization of services has also been shown to be poor throughout the country, particularly in rural areas. Services are underutilized throughout Ghana, often because potential clients lack social support for positive behavior change to use these services. The USAID's Strategic Objective 1 - "Improving Family Health" was developed to address these deficiencies and has the following specific objectives:

• To improve utilization of reproductive health services.
• To improve utilization of child survival services.

USAID is also committed to reversing the upward trend in HIV prevalence.

JHU/PCS provides comprehensive behavior change communication (BCC) support to the USAID Mission's program in Ghana. JHU/PCS communication initiatives strive to generate increased demand for, and improved access to, FP, child health, and HIV/AIDS information and services through the use of multi-media channels and community-based initiatives. In addition, its programs assist hundreds of organizations nationwide in the area of health communication and BCC by providing communication and life skills materials and training in BCC.

CURRENT PROJECTS

• Scaling up Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS)
  CHPS is a strategy for promoting equitable, accessible, and quality community-based health services to Ghanaians. It was developed with the collaboration of JHU/PCS, the Ministry of Health and the Navrongo Health Research Center and so far has been made operational in 20 lead districts nationwide. The aims of this program are to improve and expand community mobilization and participation skills for Ghana Health Service(GHS) staff and to improve BCC skills among community health officers and community members.
  
  This year, JHU/PCS began conducting training sessions in 30 additional districts, making a total of 50 CHPS districts nationwide. Training of trainers sessions on community mobilization, as well as the use of tools such as "Journey of Hope" and CHEST (Community Health Education Skills Toolkit), will be conducted. These trainers will in turn go on to facilitate "downstream" training sessions.

• Stop AIDS. Love Life Compassion Campaign
  Initiated in February 2000, this nationwide communication campaign has been extensively involved in: dissemination of information on HIV/AIDS through a variety of mass-media, community-based and interpersonal channels, promoting self-efficacy/ empowerment, as well as generating a compassionate societal response to affected people. Throughout its span, Stop AIDS. Love Life has adopted a multi-sectoral approach, which entails fostering partnerships with key stakeholder groups, as well as capacity building among local partners. The campaign is currently in Phase III, Compassion, which makes use of faith-based approaches to spread the message of prevention and compassion.
  
  A recent offshoot of the Stop AIDS, Love Life campaign is the Sara initiative, which will focus on self-efficacy and social norms and will specifically address adolescent girls and their special needs in relation to HIV/AIDS prevention. SACI is a set of communication tools (animated films, radio programs, comic books, posters, etc.) developed by UNICEF to address the development of the adolescent girl in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• Life Choices Behavior Change Communication Campaign
  The Life Choices campaign responds to a component of USAID's Strategic Objective 3 (increased use of reproductive health services) by increasing demand for facility-based FP services. The strategy, which blends community activities with mass media support, aims to reposition FP and to address social normative issues that serve as obstacles to contraceptive use.

• Improving Home-Based Care for Malaria
  Launched in January 2000, the He Ha Ho radio drama (He Ha Ho stands for Healthy Happier Homes) was developed by the collaborative efforts of the RBM (Roll back malaria)/IMCI programs division of GHS and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, with technical assistance from JHU/PCS. The show is a major component of a multi-channel approach. Its aims are to educate, motivate, and demonstrate to listeners issues related to malaria and other childhood illnesses, as well as reproductive health, particularly FP and HIV/AIDS. The home-based care (HBC) communication campaign, begun in May 2002, builds on the success of the on-going He Ha Ho radio magazine show. By developing synergy among various RBM interventions, the overall ability of caregivers to recognize and respond appropriately to malaria will be strengthened.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

The Complementary Roles of Mass Media and Community-level Communication Channels for Promoting Condom Use Among Men and Women in Ghana (1.1 MB)

Shifting from a Health-based Approach to a Social Normative Approach to HIV Prevention in Africa: The Case of the Stop Aids Love Life Campign in Ghana (1.2 MB)