AFFORD began as a five-year (2005-2010) health marketing initiative in partnership with Futures Group International, the Malaria Consortium, Pulse Communication, Aclaim Africa and Communication for Development Foundation of Uganda and funded by USAID. With a three year extension (2011-2013), AFFORD will be led by CCP in partnership with Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG) to continue to integrate health communication and social marketing techniques to address a variety of health issues and behaviors in Uganda.
According to the WHO, 2.5 billion people still remain without improved sanitation facilities and around 900 million people still rely on unimproved drinking-water supplies. Diarrheal disease continuous to be a leading cause of death, particularly affecting children under 5 years of age. Besides diarrhea, poor access to safe water and lack of sanitation can result in other waterborne and infectious diseases including, hepatitis A, dysentery, typhoid fever, and cholera.
In 2006, CCP established the Global Program on Water and Hygiene to work with international and private organizations, governments and communities to improve safe water, hygiene and sanitation practices worldwide. The Global Program on Water and Hygiene at CCP uses strategic health communication to promote safe water and hygiene behaviors. Through a combination of innovative research methods and theories the Global Program strives to bridge the gap between behavior and technologies, and to encourage sustained use of water treatment technologies and hygiene products.
To date, the program has successfully conducted research on the social, cultural and behavioral factors of household water treatment and hygiene in several countries around the world including Guatemala, Pakistan, Haiti, and Indonesia. It has also continued to support the design and implementation of field projects across Asia, Eurasia, Near East, Africa and the Americas with different focus areas:
- Point of Use water treatment (POU)
- Hand Washing with soap
- Emergency Response
- Community hygiene
- Sanitation
- Small Water Enterprises
Through the Global Program on Water and Hygiene, CCP collaborates with many international, governmental and private organizations, including WHO, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, UNICEF, CARE, PSI, PATH, USAID, and the World Bank. A founding member of the International Network to Promote Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage, CCP shares its expertise in health behavior with other safe water and sanitation advocates in governmental development agencies, non-governmental organizations, and research institutions. The CCP Global Program on Water and Hygiene closely collaborates with the Johns Hopkins University Global Water Program led by the Center for Water and Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health [1].
CCP's Global Program on Water and Hygiene Brochure [2] is available for more information.
Contact Person
Maria Elena Figueroa mfiguero@jhuccp.org [3]Publications and Project Materials
USAID Global Development Alliance. (2010). Safe Drinking Water Alliance - Experiences in Haiti, Ethiopia, and Pakistan: Lessons for future water treatment programs [4].Projects
Aman Tirta, Safe Water Systems (SWS), a five-year project funded by USAID, aimed to ensure widespread access to an affordable water treatment product (Air RahMat) for low income families with children under five years in Indonesia. Led by CCP, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, CARE International Indonesia, PT Tanshia Consumer Products and Ultra Salur, the project employed a public-private partnership (PPP) model to create the first fully sustainable commercial model for safe water systems. The PPP combined commercial manufacturing and distribution of Air RahMat, with community participation and media promotion to create demand for the product and safe water practices. Advocacy with the Ministry of Health (MOH) created an enabling environment for household water treatment and safe storage (HWTS). The MOH implemented an HWTS policy that endorses a range of HWTS technologies in Indonesia. Air RahMat is one of the products endorsed by the MOH.
Assistance Technique Nationale Plus (ATN Plus) is a five-year project funded by USAID, designed to improve national capacity to implement high impact health services and promote healthy behaviors. The project is led by Abt Associates, in partnerhship with Care International, Intrahealth, Helen Keller International, Gruope Pivot and CCP. In collaboration with national counterparts, CCP supports design and implementation of BCC activities to increase utilization of key health services. The project currently works in 35 districts covering maternal health, family planning, nutrituion, immunization, malaria and health systems strengthening. This is a follow on project to the original five-year ATN project.
The Environmental Services Program (ESP), a five-year program funded by the USAID, sought to promote better health through improved water management and increased access to safe water and sanitation in Indonesia. Led by Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), ESP took a “ridge to reefs” approach to link water resources management with improved health. CCP’s role was to direct the strategic communication for behavior change components of the project. Behavior change focused on community groups and school systems and addressed hygiene issues such as hand washing with soap to reduce diarrhea prevalence. CCP also worked with local media networks to build awareness of and discourse about key water, environment, and health issues through regular multimedia campaigns.
The Ghana Behavior Change Support (BCS) project is a four-year, USAID-funded project managed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The overall purpose of the project is to assist the GHS at the national, regional and district levels to support its efforts to achieve health-related millennium development goals through sustained and coherent social and behavior change communication (BCC) interventions. BCS aims to increase demand and use of commodities and services and create positive behaviors in the areas of:
- Maternal Neonatal & Child Health
- Family Planning
- Malaria Prevention & Treatment
- Nutrition
- Water, Sanitation, & Hygiene
The BCS project is audience focused and driven by the community and family level where behavior and norms are formed. The primary focus is on households with children and youth, and the communities they live in, the providers they go to and the district and national leaders that impact them. The project employs the Communication for Social change model. This aims to blend community, interpersonal and mass media approaches building synergy around three strategic elements or engines.
BCS PLATFORMS
- Addressing a wide spectrum of health topics simultaneously through an integrated approach, Ghana BCS is creating educational and entertaining programs/series that will go on over the duration of the project.
- Utilizing BCC campaigns to focus on one or two specific health issues at a time with high intensity and limited duration.
- Working closely with regional, district, & sub-district health teams to build and strengthen the network of local NGOs to undertake effective and synergized community mobilization in both rural and urban settings.
The Health Communication Partnership (HCP), a five-year project funded by USAID, linked five leading institutions to strengthen public health in the developing world through strategic communication programs. The project was led by CCP in partnership with Academy for Educational Development (AED), Save the Children, The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. HCP sought to create an environment that supported individuals, families, and communities to act positively for their own health and to advocate for and gain access to quality services. HCP addressed family planning and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, nutrition, safe water and hygiene, and democracy and governance. The project had global reach, implementing programs and providing technical assistance in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Near East, and Europe/Eurasia.
Improved Community Health Care Project Liberia (ICH-Africare) was a five-year project funded by USAID and Africare. Led by Africare, ICH aimed to improve the availability, quality, and reach of primary health care (PHC) and family planning services. CCP worked with local NGOs to design mass media and community-based, behavior change communication activities promoting modern health care and family planning.
Rebuilding Basic Health Services Project is a five–year, USAID-funded project working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) to increase access to basic health services and to support the decentralized management of the health system in Liberia, as outlined in the National Health Policy and Plan and as part of the Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS). The project is managed by John Snow Research & Training Institute (JSI), in partnership with CCP, Jhpiego and Management Sciences for Health (MSH).
CCP manages the social and behavior change component of the project, working at both the national and county levels to support the MoHSW Health Promotion Unit in implementing the BCC and community mobilization strategy. The strategy focuses on five priority health areas: 1) maternal and newborn health; 2) child health; 3) adolescent sexual reproductive health; 4) HIV; and 5) malaria.
The Small Water Enterprises (SWE) project is a one-year project funded by the Safe Water Network. The overall goal of this project is to develop and test small scale private water service systems at the community level as a solution to providing safe water to the poor in the developing world. More specifically, the project will implement initial assessments to support in-field demonstrations of small-scale private water service systems in selected communities in India with the aim of scaling up the SWEs across India as a water supply solution.
The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in School (WASH) project, a one-year project funded by UNICEF, was a hygiene and education pilot for several districts in Indonesia. CCP implemented the project in 60 schools and gampong/dusun in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar Districts. Working in partnership with the Indonesian Government and local NGOs, the project aimed to improve water and sanitation practices and thus reduce acute diarrheal and other WASH-related diseases among school children. The program was designed to increase knowledge and practice of hygienic behaviors, including consistent use of water and sanitation facilities, hand washing with soap at critical times, water treatment, safe handling and storage of food, and safe management of waste water and solid waste. CCP managed school-led hygiene promotion, using a participatory approach to help schools develop action plans and build skills among students, teachers, and the wider community.
