This is USAID's website about the topic of Accelerator Behaviors. These 10 Accelerator Behaviors are identified in the USAID Behavior Change Framework as priority behaviors because they currently have low global uptake and they have the potential
Accelerator Behaviors for Ending Preventable Maternal and Child Deaths
[UPDATED JULY 2016] Tremendous strides have been made in the past several decades in saving the lives of mothers and children. The numbers of those dying has decreased dramatically, thanks to the tireless efforts of governments, international organizations, communities, and individual households. Yet, with all of this progress, the numbers are still unacceptably high.
In 2015:
• 5.9 million children under age five died - 16,000 every day
• 303,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth - 830 every day*
Thus efforts continue unabated. In 2012 there was a worldwide meeting, the Child Survival Call to Action, which set a goal date of 2035 for reaching fewer than 20 deaths per thousand live births in all countries.
In 2014, at the second anniversary of the 2012 meeting, USAID identified ten key "accelerator behaviors" which if taken could substantially contribute to ending preventable deaths. Each of these behaviors impact a major cause of child and/or maternal mortality across the continuum of care/lifecycle yet currently have low uptake in many countries. Accelerator behaviors are thus priority behaviors for programming as they have the highest potential to hasten the decline of child and maternal death worldwide.**
In 2016 USAID published its Acceleerator Behavior website (Beta version), listing the ten behaviors and offering program guidance:
The Ten Accelerator Behaviors are:
- MALARIA: Caregivers recognize symptoms of malaria and seek prompt diagnosis and appropriate care
- DIARRHEA: Caregivers provide appropriate treatment for children at onset of symptoms
- PNEUMONIA: Caregivers seek prompt and appropriate care for signs and symptoms of acute respiratory infection (ARI)
- IMMUNIZATIONS: caregivers seek full course of timely vaccinations for infants
- WATER SANITATION AND HYGIENE (WASH): Handwashing with soap at critical times (after defecation, after changing diapers and before food preparation and eating
- HEALTHY TIMING AND SPACING OF PREGNANCIES (HTSP): After a live birth, women use a modern contraceptive method to avoid pregnancy for at least 24 months (resulting in approximately three years between births)
- NUTRITION: Early initiation (within one hour) and exclusive breastfeeding for six months after delivery
- MATERNAL: Pregnant women attend antenatal care and attend facilities for delivery to reduce preventable maternal deaths
- NEWBORN: Seek prompt and appropriate care for signs and symptoms of newborn illness to reduce preventable newborn deaths
- PREVENTION OF MOTHER TO CHILD TRANSMISSION (PMTCT): Active demand at household level for identification and treatment of all HIV-infected pregnant women
In addition to these ten behaviors, USAID identified behaviors related to each which contribute to improving the enabling environment to effectively carry out the accelerator behavior and may be bundled with other accelerator behaviors. The full list of accelerator and related behaviors can be accessed here.
This Trending Topic provides several resources and project examples for addressing each of the 10 behaviors. However, there are many more materials in the Health COMpass and you should conduct a search on the particular behavior or behaviors that your project is focusing on.
- *Source: World Health Organization website
- **Source: Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths. Retrieved 2/22/16
Banner photo: A mother and her infant in Somaliland, Somalia.© 2014 What Took You So Long for Medical Aid Films, Courtesy of Photosharei, Courtesy of Photoshare
Resources
The Behavior Change Framework is designed to help mainstream behavior change activities in the global health agenda for Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Death (EPCMD) by identifying the behavior changes that can have the highest impact on mortality reduction.
This document outlines the next steps in the efforts to lower the number of maternal and child deaths.
This includes the following five strategic shifts:
This page offers online courses in the basics of SBCC as well as on more specific topics such as SBCC for malaria, various topics in research, and social media. Some of the online courses offer certificates upon completion.
This toolkit includes messages for spreading the word about Global Handwashing Day (October 15) on Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. The 2015 theme for Global Handwashing Day is “Raise a Hand for Hygiene”.
The toolkit offers samples for tweets, Facebook posts, and links to blogs and websites.
The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Improvement Training Package is intended to support the training of local outreach workers and their subsequent work in communities to promote improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices to reduce diarrhea.
The Training Package consists of three separate parts:
This 1.5 hour course explains the importance of counseling in family planning service settings and introduces key family planning counseling skills.
By the end of this course the student should be able to:
This is a reference and educational tool for people who create communication materials. If you’re new to materials development, we recommend that you read through the guide before actually starting to develop materials, then carefully follow the eight steps described below and covered in detail in the guide.
This is a film for health workers and communities providing safe newborn care. The film demonstrates how to effectively use chlorhexidine to provide safe umbilical cord care after birth.
This is a training curriculum for service providers in Nepal, as they learn about the use of chlorhexidine to reduce neonatal mortality.
This poster illusrates and describes the proper procedure for application of Chlorhexidrine to the baby's umbilical cord immediately after birth so as to prevent infection.
The Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy (HTSP) Counseling Pathways: A Counseling Tool for Health Care Providers can be used to identify a woman who may be at risk of a closely spaced pregnancy or pregnancy at too early an age.
The purpose of this poster is to promote the use of oral rehydration salts (ORS) with zinc tablets to treat and prevent childhood diarrhea.
This card is part of a set produced by projects in Peru and Nicaragua aimed at reducing diarrheal disease incidence, even in communities with adequate latrines and piped water. It illustrates the various ways a family uses and stores water so as to minimize the possibility of diarrhea.
This poster illustrates the four rules for treating diarrhoeal disease at home:
- Give the child more fluids
- Give zinc tablets every day for 10 days
- Continue feeding the child as usual
- Take the child to a health center of the condition doesn't improve
This card is part of a set produced by projects in Peru and Nicaragua aimed at reducing diarrheal disease incidence, even in communities with adequate latrines and piped water.
Drinking water advisories are issued in response to a specific event or situation. Communication materials can be prepared in advance to prepare for these kinds of events. This toolbox outlines the questions and information that a drinking water advisory must address.
The Suaahara ("good nutrition")program works with the Government of Nepal’s existing systems and supports the Government in addressing undernutrition and related health issues of women and children under-two years of age.
This booklet for mothers and caregivers of children under 2 focuses on the importance of the first 1,000 days of a child’s life as the best investment for child growth and development.
The complementary feeding wheel is an interpersonal communication tool designed for low literate community mobilizers to talk to family members about how to feed their child.
The USAID-funded Suaahara ‘Good Nutrition’ Project’s Bhanchhin Aama (“Mother says”) campaign comprehensively integrates nutrition, sanitation, agriculture and health services promotion to improve health outcomes. The program focuses on families within the 1000 days from pregnancy till the child is two years old.
Alive & Thrive is an initiative in Vietnam aimed at improving infant and young child feeding by increasing rates of exclusive breastfeeding and improving complementary feeding practices. This document describes the IYCF support group model, how it is established, and the tools used in its implementation.
The Communication Framework and Plan is a component of the National Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) Strategy and its goal is to contribute to the reduction of undernutrition and death caused by sub-optimal infant and young child feeding practices.
Alive & Thrive is an initiative in Vietnam aimed at improving infant and young child feeding by increasing rates of exclusive breastfeeding and improving complementary feeding practices.
This is a series of pamphlets for health workers in Bangladesh to use when visiting homes and clinics and teaching about reproductive health and child health. The kit includes materials on the following topics: maternal and newborn child health, family planning, nutrition, antenatal care, adolescent health, and safe water and hygiene.
These tools were created to help health workers before, during and after a counseling session so that they can better support
The tools consist of the following parts:
This poster is part of the multi-channel Wazazi Nipendeni (Love me, Parents) campaign which aims to integrate all safe motherhood health areas under one platform, including early and complete ANC attendance, malaria prevention, the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), individual birth planning and safe delivery. The poster
This 1-minute TV spot is part of the multi-channel Wazazi Nipendeni (Love me, Parents) campaign which aims to integrate all safe motherhood health areas under one platform, including early and complete ANC attendance, malaria prevention, the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), individual birth planning and safe delivery.
The Uganda Go Together, Know Together campaigned was a national couples HIV counseling and testing campaign.
Developed in 2011, this is an SBCC strategy for community-level programs in behavior change related to TB, malaria and HIV prevention.
This counseling curriculum was developed to help recognize counseling as a skill and allocate sufficient classroom time for practicing skills and receiving feedback by addressing the needs of return clients in addition to new clients
One of a set of posters from the NetCare project in Nigeria promoting behaviors to increase the lifespan of malaria nets through careful handling and repair. This poster shows how to roll up or tie up a net when it is not in use, to keep it away from children and thus prevent it from tearing or from other damage.
This toolkit is a resource for communication materials designed to promote testing for malaria and adherence to test results. This site includes radio and print materials aimed at parents and the general public.
This pamphlet lists frequently asked questions and answers about LLINs such as how to care for tears in the nets, who should take care of nets in the household, and how to wash the net.
This is one of a set of posters from the NetCare project in Nigeria promoting behaviors to increase the lifespan of malaria nets through careful handling and repair. The poster shows a father identifying and fixing a hole in a mosquito net.
This is a flipchart from Cambodia to be used by service providers to guide them in how to treat children with pneumonia. Emphasis is placed on motivating mothers to save their child's life by using the medication correctly, according to the updated national guidelines.
