Advancing Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s adolescent and youth population has urgent and varied needs for family planning services and sexual and reproductive health care. Yet a strong tradition of early marriage and childbearing, set against a backdrop of conservative social and gender norms, means adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights have historically been overlooked in national family planning programs.

The USAID-funded, Pathfinder-led Accelerating Universal Access to Family Planning Project, popularly known as Shukhi Jibon, is working to change this. This publication highlights Shukhi Jibon’s multi-pronged approach to advancing cost-effective solutions that enhance health providers’ skills and responsiveness, facility readiness, community engagement, and young people’s service-seeking behavior and contraceptive uptake—all of which can be scaled up across Bangladesh.

Source: Pathfinder International

Date of Publication: January 18, 2023

Lessons Learned and Good Practices: Country-Specific Case Studies on Immunization Activities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The methodology for this report included a literature review of available documentation and research, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions with UNICEF country and regional offices and partners. The process led to a series of six case studies, which describe predominantly positive campaign experiences, documenting lessons and good practices that can inform future immunization programs carried out during COVID-19 or similar circumstances.

Source: UNICEF

Date of Publication: January 18, 2023

Breakthrough ACTION Liberia: Baseline Report for Adolescents

Breakthrough ACTION is a global project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to lead social and behavior change (SBC) programs around the world. The project ignites collective action and encourages people to adopt healthier behaviors. This work harnesses the demonstrated power of communication and integrates innovative approaches from marketing science, behavioral economics, and human-centered design.

In Liberia, Breakthrough ACTION supports the increased adoption of health behaviors among individuals, families, and communities. The Breakthrough ACTION Liberia project uses an integrated health approach to promote a full suite of healthy behaviors across the areas of malaria; reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH); family planning (FP); nutrition; zoonotic diseases; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)—all areas that have been identified as priority areas by the Liberian Ministry of Health and USAID.

This report focuses on female youth who are married/in a union and on single male and female youth. Youth refers to participants who are 15- to 19-years-old. It defines baseline levels of the priority health behaviors along with intermediate outcomes that offer the potential to affect the priority behaviors in one or more health areas, including malaria, RMNCAH, WASH, zoonotic diseases, nutrition, COVID-19, and the Global Health Security Agenda. The intermediate outcomes include couple communication, decision-making, knowledge, attitudes, and perceived norms around the priority behaviors, and patient-provider interaction experiences. In addition, the report captures the recall of Breakthrough ACTION Liberia program-related messages and describes how various demographic, psychosocial, cultural, and relational factors are associated with priority health behaviors. There are two other reports that also discuss findings gathered from the baseline study– one with baseline findings from adult men and women in Liberia and one specifically focused on family planning baseline findings for adult men and women in Liberia.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: January 17, 2023

Breakthrough ACTION Liberia Baseline Report: FP and LARCs Report

This report describes the baseline study conducted by Breakthrough ACTION Liberia on family planning (FP) and long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) use. The objectives of this report are as follows:

To identify key determinants of modern FP and LARC use
To set benchmarks for evaluation of impact
To assess the roles of gender equitable norms, social norms, couple communication in the adoption of FP behaviors
To identify selected audiences for FP promotion

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: January 17, 2023

Breakthrough ACTION Liberia: Baseline Report for Women and Men

To assess relevant baseline indicators and inform the SBC strategy across several health areas and audiences, Breakthrough ACTION Liberia conducted a household survey among men and women of reproductive age in three counties between September and October 2021. The baseline survey was cross-sectional and had the following objectives:

Identify key determinants of health behaviors in the areas of maternal health, maternal and child nutrition, malaria, COVID-19
Set benchmarks for impact assessment of the integrated SBC Breakthrough ACTION Liberia program
Assess the roles of gender-equitable norms, social norms, couple communication, and decision-making in the adoption of health behaviors
Inform an SBC strategy across several health areas and audiences
Establish baseline measures to assess the effects of project activities

This report focuses on partnered women and men of reproductive age. We baseline the levels of priority health behaviors along with intermediate outcomes that offer the potential to affect priority behaviors in one or more health areas, including malaria, RMNCAH, WASH, zoonotic diseases, nutrition, COVID-19, and Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA). The intermediate outcomes include couple communication, decision-making, knowledge, attitudes, perceived norms around priority behaviors, and patient-provider interaction experiences. In addition, the report captures recall of Breakthrough ACTION Liberia program-related messages and describes how various demographic, psychosocial, cultural, and relational factors are associated with priority health behaviors.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: January 17, 2023

Social and Behavior Change for Family Planning User Journey Tool

A multitude of factors influence family planning (FP) uptake and maintenance. Social and behavior change (SBC) is uniquely placed to understand and address those factors. However, FP programs often underutilize and underfund SBC. Helping decision-makers understand both the social and behavioral drivers of FP use and how SBC can effectively address those drivers can lead to greater use and investment in SBC. Breakthrough ACTION designed the Social and Behavior Change for Family Planning User Journey Tool to encourage investment in SBC within FP programming. The tool helps SBC advocates communicate the need for social behavior change in an easy-to-grasp, visual format.

The interactive tool follows the FP journey of Nala—a fictional young woman who represents the experiences of young women like her around the world—highlighting key social and behavioral determinants that influence her decision to learn about, use, and continue using FP. The tool also features examples of evidence-based SBC interventions that address those behavioral determinants and data about the positive impact of SBC in FP. It presents actions decision-makers can take to support SBC in FP and offers practical tools to help them get started.

Last modified: January 17, 2023

Language: English

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2022

HCD and Behavioral Science Integration Primer

This primer gives insight into how to integrate Human Centered Design and Behavioral Science approaches to enhance the impact of policies, programs, and services and drive social change.

Last modified: January 17, 2023

Language: English

Source: Dalberg Design

Year of Publication: 2020

Afghan Safe Migration

Afghans engage in migration through irregular means due to a multiplicity of factors such as the continued and worsening security and economic situation in Afghanistan, lack of rights, high unemployment, and environmental hazards.

The Afghan Safe Migration project supported Afghan diaspora organizations in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands to deliver protection information based on the needs among potential and current migrants from Afghanistan.

The required information was determined through research and data collection, including in-depth consultations with Afghan diaspora groups in Europe, migrants en route, prospective migrants, and returnees in Afghanistan. The capacity of Afghan diaspora organizations engaged in providing protection information was increased, and networks were established, to ensure targeted messages and information on protection assistance in English, Farsi/Dari, and Pashto to strengthen safe and protective migration environments for vulnerable people from Afghanistan.

Visit the “Safe Migration Information for Afghans” web page for more information.

Source: Danish Refugee Council

Date of Publication: January 12, 2023

Monitoring Social and Behavior Change for Multi-Sectoral Nutrition

This tool can help SBC technical and MEL staff in deciding on what nutrition priority behaviors and influencing factors to monitor as they prepare monitoring, evaluation, and learning plans. It can be used in conjunction with the “Prioritizing Multisectoral Nutrition Behaviors” and “Using Research to Design an SBC Strategy” tools which help in prioritizing behaviors and identifying the barriers and enablers that prevent or support the practice of nutrition behaviors.

Last modified: January 5, 2023

Language: English

Source: USAID Advancing Nutrition

Year of Publication: 2021

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