Type of Material: Case Study

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Integrating Gender for Effective and Inclusive Risk Communication and Community Engagement During Health Emergencies

This case study, developed by Breakthrough ACTION with USAID support, highlights how integrating gender considerations can enhance emergency health responses.

The project trained risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) professionals in Guinea, Niger, Nigeria, and Liberia to address gender-specific needs, improving the inclusivity and effectiveness of their communication strategies. In Guinea, participants redefined gender perspectives and applied new tools, significantly boosting their confidence in gender-responsive RCCE. In Niger, participants were introduced to essential gender considerations, laying the groundwork for broader integration in health interventions. In Nigeria, gender was embedded into all training modules, helping practitioners understand the impact of norms on health behaviors and develop gender-sensitive messages. In Liberia, regional sessions enabled county-level leaders to create local gender action plans, maintaining momentum during a politically challenging time.

This case study underscores that a gender-sensitive approach in RCCE fosters trust, addresses disparities, and supports inclusive health interventions, creating a model for effective emergency response across diverse settings.

Date of Publication: March 18, 2026

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Nigeria Women’s Empowerment Groups

Breakthrough ACTION developed Women’s Empowerment Groups in Nigeria to create safe spaces for women and strengthen their capacity and agency to:

  • Practice health behaviors
  • Engage in discussion and decision making confidently with their spouses
  • Participate in economic empowerment activities

The Women’s Empowerment Group model is based on insights from formative research, suggesting that many women lack the agency or ability to make decisions—and act—on issues related to pregnancy, childbirth, and child health care.

A Women’s Empowerment Group brings together 15–35 women committed to their health and the well-being of their children and families. The women are also willing to work together on financial empowerment through savings and loans and by learning new skills.

The group’s operational guidelines provide step-by-step instructions on implementing the Women’s Empowerment Group model. The guidelines are designed for use by any group, organization, or individual interested in systematically supporting and promoting women’s empowerment, with a focus on health-related issues.

Women’s Empowerment Group Training Manual is designed for individuals interested in facilitating Women’s Empowerment Groups or similar models. This training manual provides detailed guidance to train facilitators who will support Women’s Groups.

Nutrition Card Game

Breakthrough ACTION developed nutrition resources for these groups to increase women’s nutrition knowledge through gamification and food demonstrations.

The Nutrition Card Game [ Hausa | Igbo ] teaches women about dietary diversity, using the concept of a four-star meal, which includes at least one food item from four food groups. The card game helps individuals and communities understand diet diversity and encourages community members to make nutritious recipes from locally available options.

Nutrition Card Game Instructions [PDF]
A Transformative Journey to Overcome Gender Barriers [PDF]

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: March 18, 2026

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WABA Provider Behavior Change for Improved Family Planning Service Delivery

Through its community engagement activities; co-creation sessions with family planning (FP) providers, community members, and local decision makers; and various research efforts, West Africa Breakthrough ACTION (WABA) sought to understand better the challenges health professionals and health systems face in ensuring quality FP service delivery. Alongside stakeholders, the project identified priority challenges in each country, including:

  1. Inconsistent provider motivation in Burkina Faso
  2. A lack of a standardized, comprehensive FP counseling tool in Côte d’Ivoire
  3. Poor service organization and client flow between services in health centers in Togo
  4. A lack of provider motivation and a need for a simplified segmentation counseling tool in Niger

These insights laid the groundwork for provider behavior change solutions across the four WABA implementation countries; each focused on improving the FP service delivery experience for all parties involved.

BURKINA FASO

CÔTE D’IVOIRE

NIGER

TOGO

Date of Publication: March 17, 2026

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Two women siting down and a child sitting on one woman's lap
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Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria Malaria SBC Tools and Resources

In collaboration with the United States President’s Malaria Initiative, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria worked with the Nigeria National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and other partners to implement social and behavior change programs across a third of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Through community engagement, provider behavior change initiatives, and widespread media campaigns, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria and the NMEP ensured communities and healthcare workers were motivated to prevent, test, and accurately treat malaria. Through community engagement, provider behavior change initiatives, and widespread media campaigns, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria collaborated with NMEP to ensure that communities and healthcare workers are motivated to prevent, test, and accurately treat malaria. Here are resources developed by Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria that can be used by others interested in leveraging the power of SBC into malaria programming.

Community-Based Stakeholder Job Aids

School-Based SBC Tools

Mama Put Campaign

Television Spots
Audio Spots

Malaria Radio Spots

Learning Briefs and Blog Posts

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: August 13, 2024

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Integrated Health Social and Behavior Change Programming: Tools and Resources from Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria
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Integrated Health Social and Behavior Change Programming: Tools and Resources from Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria

Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria implemented an integrated health social and behavior change (SBC) strategy in four states (Bauchi, Kebbi, Sokoto, Ebonyi) and the Federal Capital Territory. This work promoted positive shifts for 17 health behaviors. Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria implemented a coordinated package of continuous community, media, and digital activities. Coordinating and reinforcing these maximized the reach and intensity of audience engagement. Each activity focused on the same behaviors and the same core messages and approaches and was informed by the results from ongoing formative research.

Community SBC and Referrals for Health Services
Working with community health volunteers, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria implemented community SBC interventions and made referrals to health services. Community SBC activities included community health dialogues with referrals, compound meetings, and house-to-house visits.

Community Capacity Strengthening
Through an innovative adaptation of the Community Action Cycle, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria worked hand-in-hand with Primary Health Care Development Agency staff and other key stakeholders at the state and local government levels to empower Ward Development Committees to plan, finance, and implement their own health initiatives within their communities.

Women’s Empowerment Groups
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria used human-centered design to create Women’s Empowerment Groups. These were safe spaces outside the home, where groups of women could support each other, become economically empowered, and learn about reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, nutrition, and malaria.

Social and Behavior Change Advocacy Core Groups
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria facilitated SBC Advocacy Core Groups that enabled a systematic interaction and engagement of religious and traditional leaders with other opinion leaders in the health and development sectors, including government officials, community service organization representatives, women’s groups, media personnel, and other community opinion leaders. The groups were developed to influence social and gender norms.

Mass Media, Mobile Phones, and Digital
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria implemented a wide range of transmedia interventions on radio, television, mobile phone, and social media that were co-created with the government, implementing partners, community members, and other key stakeholders. The co-creation process placed users and communities at the center of designing messages and ensured ownership of the work.

Provider Behavior Change
Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria worked closely with the federal and state governments to transform professional attitudes, norms, and standards in the areas of respectful maternity care, malaria in pregnancy, and fever case management.

Public Sector Capacity Strengthening
The project’s public sector capacity-strengthening activities were aligned in support of government priorities and strategies across national, state, and local government areas and wards. This work strengthened public sector systems for oversight and coordination of SBC at the national and sub-national levels.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: August 13, 2024

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Implementation Strategies To Accelerate Community Covid-19 Vaccination Rates
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Implementation Strategies To Accelerate Community Covid-19 Vaccination Rates: Experiences and Lessons learned from USAID’s support in Côte d’Ivoire

This success story highlights the lessons learned and recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine implementation in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Health reported the country’s first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on 11 March 2020. By March 2021, when the vaccine became widely available, over 32,000 cases had been detected (Our World in Data). Also in March 2021, the Ivorian government, in collaboration with its partners, launched a nationwide vaccination campaign to reach 70% vaccination coverage by September 2023 in alignment with WHO’s global targets.

Please download the document to read more.

Stratégies de mise en œuvre pour accélérer les taux de vaccination communautaire contre le COVID-19 : Expériences et leçons tirées du soutien de l’USAID en Côte d’Ivoire

Cette histoire de réussite met en lumière les leçons apprises et les recommandations relatives à la mise en œuvre du vaccin COVID-19 en Côte d’Ivoire.

Le ministère ivoirien de la santé a signalé le premier cas de maladie à coronavirus (COVID-19) dans le pays le 11 mars 2020. En mars 2021, lorsque le vaccin est devenu largement disponible, plus de 32 000 cas avaient été détectés (Notre monde en données). Toujours en mars 2021, le gouvernement ivoirien, en collaboration avec ses partenaires, a lancé une campagne de vaccination à l’échelle nationale pour atteindre une couverture vaccinale de 70% d’ici septembre 2023, en alignement avec les objectifs mondiaux de l’OMS.

Veuillez télécharger le document pour en savoir plus.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: January 17, 2024

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Health for the People: National Community Health Worker Programs from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe
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Health for the People: National Community Health Worker Programs from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

This resource is a collection of community health worker program data from 29 countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The compilation of country case studies serves as an informative guide for the development and strengthening of CHW programs. The case studies all follow the same format, making it possible to compare similar dimensions from program to program.

Date of Publication: June 30, 2023

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Mobile Privacy and Big Data Analytics: Big Data for Social Good Considerations
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More Trending Topic: Using Big Data for SBC Resources

Mobile Privacy and Big Data Analytics: Big Data For Social Good Considerations

This document sets out some of the safeguards organizations can adopt to identify and reduce privacy risks when engaging in social work. It presents various examples intended to illustrate some of the data privacy considerations that may be taken into account.

In order to realize the potential societal and economic benefits of big data analytics in a way that is compatible with recognized data privacy principles, the following considerations may be taken into account:

  • Personal Data
  • Privacy impact assessment, privacy-by-design
  • Accountability
  • Security Access
  • Cross-border transfers of data
  • Ethics

Source: GSMA

Date of Publication: February 21, 2023

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Using big data to change how teens perceive nutrition and health in Bangladesh
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Using Big data to Change How Teens Perceive Nutrition and Health in Bangladesh

This publication explores how Big Data can be used to change the perception of adolescents about nutrition and health in Bangladesh. It presents findings from a study on understanding how adolescents currently engage with nutrition and health-related topics and their interests online. Bangladesh faces a challenge in nutrition with stunting and obesity in teenagers and understanding adolescents’ online behavior is key to reaching them with the right messages.

Source: World Bank

Date of Publication: February 21, 2023

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Meeting Youth Where They Increasingly Are
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Aller à la rencontre des jeunes là où ils se trouvent (de plus en plus)

Les interventions numériques peuvent toucher les jeunes des pays à revenu faible où ils sont de plus en plus en ligne et cela peut avoir un impact sur leurs connaissances, leurs attitudes et leurs comportements en matière de planification familiale et de santé reproductive. Cependant, de nombreux facteurs doivent être pris en compte avant de décider d’exploiter les technologies numériques dans les programmes de changement social et de comportement axés sur les jeunes.

Breakthrough ACTION a mené une étude pour comprendre comment les jeunes des pays à revenu faible recherchent, vérifient et partagent des informations sur la contraception et la santé reproductive à l’aide des médias sociaux, des plateformes de messagerie Web, et des applications mobiles. L’étude a fait ressortir cinq recommandations du programme sur la meilleure manière d’atteindre et d’engager les jeunes sur ces sujets à l’aide des technologies numériques. Ces recommandations sont présentées dans ce document, sont destinées à ceux qui travaillent dans le domaine de la planification familiale et de la santé reproductive des jeunes.

Digital interventions can meet young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where they increasingly are—online—and can impact their family planning and reproductive health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. However, there are many factors to consider before deciding to leverage digital technologies in youth-focused social and behavior change programs.

Breakthrough ACTION conducted an assessment to understand how young people in LMICs seek, vet, and share information about contraception and reproductive health using social media, web-based, app-based, and mobile messaging platforms. The assessment informed five program recommendations about how best to reach and engage with young people on these topics using digital technologies. These recommendations are presented in this document and are intended for those working in youth family planning and reproductive health.

Source: Breakthrough ACTION/Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: February 9, 2023

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