Type of Material: Technical Briefs

View Resource

More Capacity Strengthening Resources

Nigeria Provider Behavior Change Tools and Resources

Health care providers in Nigeria are working to deliver client-centered care and adhering to national guidelines. However, while providers care deeply about serving clients, gaps in knowledge, misconceptions, biases, poor communication skills, inattention to client rights, and challenging work environments make it difficult for them to provide quality health services. Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria worked closely with the federal and state governments to support facility-based providers by:

  • Identifying the factors that impede and facilitate client-centered care and adherence to guidelines in varied settings across Nigeria.
  • Developing, testing, and scaling innovative, evidence-based approaches that could be adapted to varied service delivery contexts.
  • Transforming professional norms and standards in respectful maternity care, malaria in pregnancy, and fever case management.
  • Strengthening interpersonal communication/counseling capacity among providers.
  • Building trust between communities and facilities.

The resources developed by Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria can be used by service delivery and social and behavior change practitioners interested in integrating a social and behavioral lens within their work with health care professionals.

Using Behavioral Science to Uncover New Insights on Provider Behavior

Strengthening Community and Facility Relationships

Improving Interpersonal Communication Skills

Leveraging Peer-to-Peer Influence to Transform Norms and Standards

Learning Briefs, Videos, and Blog Posts

Impact Stories

Last modified: August 1, 2026

Language: English

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2024

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

More Capacity Strengthening Resources

Adaptations of Sick Child Feeding Tools in Guatemala

Building on the behavioral design solutions developed in the Democratic Republic of Congo related to sick child feeding, Breakthrough ACTION gathered behavioral insights from mothers and caregivers in Guatemala and adapted the tools to that country’s context. The tools have been incorporated into ongoing community-focused activities and can be used or adapted to other country contexts.

Mother’s Activity

Grandmother’s Activity

Last modified: July 31, 2026

Language: English, Spanish

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2025

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

More Care and Support Resources

Malaria in Pregnancy: Trends from the Malaria Behavior Survey

Synthesizing multi country evidence from the Malaria Behavior Survey, this technical brief examines behavioral patterns, ideational factors, and service utilization related to malaria prevention and treatment among pregnant women. The analysis explores key indicators such as intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) uptake, insecticidal net use, and early antenatal care attendance across diverse sub-Saharan African contexts. It highlights how psychosocial factors, care-seeking barriers, and health system interactions directly influence behavioral adherence during pregnancy. Program planners, researchers, and technical advisors can leverage these findings to refine social and behavior change interventions and improve maternal health outcomes.

Last modified: July 31, 2026

Language: English

Year of Publication: 2024

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

Democratic Republic of the Congo National Malaria Advocacy and Resource Mobilization Strategy

Breakthrough ACTION partnered with the National Malaria Control Program, U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, and key stakeholders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to develop the National Malaria Advocacy and Resource Mobilization Strategy, a pioneering document aligned with the National Malaria Control Strategic Plan 2024–2028. This strategy serves as a blueprint to coordinate stakeholders around shared goals, ensuring that advocacy efforts for malaria control are focused, coordinated, and impactful. By setting clear priorities and resource mobilization pathways, it lays the foundation for progress toward a malaria-free Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Stratégie nationale de plaidoyer & mobilisation des ressources en faveur delutte contre le paludisme

La République démocratique du Congo (RDC) occupe la 2ème place en termes de nombre de cas de paludisme et de décès associés dans le monde (12% des cas et 13% des décès), et représente à elle seule 54,6% des cas en Afrique centrale (OMS, Rapport Mondial sur la situation du paludisme 2022).

Breakthrough ACTION RDC s’est associé au Programme national de lutte contre le paludisme (PNLP), au PMI et aux principales parties prenantes pour élaborer la Stratégie nationale de plaidoyer et de mobilisation des ressources pour la lutte contre le paludisme, un document pionnier aligné sur le Plan stratégique national de lutte contre le paludisme 2024-2028. Cette stratégie fournit un plan stratégique qui coordonne les parties prenantes autour d’objectifs communs, garantissant que les efforts de plaidoyer en faveur de la lutte contre le paludisme sont ciblés, coordonnés et efficaces. En fixant des priorités claires et des voies de mobilisation des ressources, elle jette les bases d’un progrès vers une RDC sans paludisme.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: July 31, 2026

Regions/Countries

Primary Audience(s)

Channel(s) of Communication

Intervention Level(s)

Language

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

More Capacity Strengthening Resources

Applying a Provider Behavior Ecosystem Lens to Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Services

Applying a systemic ecological framework, this technical brief explores how environmental, structural, and social drivers shape healthcare worker practices within maternal, newborn, and child health settings. The resource demonstrates how moving beyond provider knowledge gaps allows health programs to address underlying workplace pressures, institutional culture, and health system bottlenecks. It presents real world insights and programmatic considerations for designing holistic provider behavior change strategies that improve respectful, high quality clinical care. SBC professionals, health systems managers, and clinical leaders can utilize this brief to diagnose systemic service barriers and strengthen health facility environments.

Last modified: July 31, 2026

Language: English

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2024

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

More Capacity Strengthening Resources

Resources and Opportunities to Support and Invest in SBC for FP/RH

Designed to address behavioral barriers and investment challenges, this resource guide collection assists decision makers, donors, and implementing partners in advancing social and behavior change for family planning and reproductive health. The resource synthesizes behavioral insights and evidence to outline strategic opportunities for strengthening financial and institutional support for behavior change interventions. It provides tailored resource collections and action oriented guidance to help stakeholders overcome operational hurdles, align priorities, and maximize investment impact. Program managers, advocates, and policy makers can leverage these curated collections to mobilize resources and integrate behavior change approaches into health strategies.

Resources

ENGLISH

Why Invest in SBC for FP/RH? A Resource Collection Guide for Donors [PDF]

Why Invest in SBC for FP/RH? A Resource Collection Guide for Country-Level Decision Makers [PDF]

Why Invest in SBC for FP/RH? A Resource Collection Guide for Service Delivery IPs [PDF]

FP INSIGHT

Why Invest in SBC for FP/RH? A Resource Collection for Donors

Why Support SBC for FP/RH? A Resource Collection for Country Decision Makers

Why Support SBC for FP/RH? A Resource Collection for Service Delivery Implementing Partners

EN FRANÇAIS

Pourquoi investir dans le CSC pour la PF/SR ? Un guide de collection de ressources pour les donateurs [PDF]

Pourquoi investir dans le CSC pour la PF/SR ? Un guide de collection de ressources pour les décideurs au niveau national [PDF]

Pourquoi investir dans le CSC pour la PF/SR ? Un guide de collection de ressources pour les partenaires de mise en œuvre de la prestation de services [PDF]

Last modified: July 31, 2026

Language: English, French

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2023

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

Community Empathways Dialogue Results Brief

This brief focuses on the results of a light-touch monitoring effort in Côte d’Ivoire and Togo conducted with adult community Empathways participants to gauge whether the card deck contributed to reducing social barriers for youth to access family planning/reproductive health information and services.

Résumé sur les résultats issus des discussions communautaires autour d’Empathways

Ce résumé s’articule autour des résultats observés suite à un effort de suivi discret effectué par WABA en Côte d’Ivoire et au Togo auprès d’adultes, membres de la communauté, ayant participé à Empathways, le but étant d’évaluer la contribution du jeu de cartes à la réduction des barrières sociales qui empêchent les jeunes d’accéder aux informations et aux services de PF/SR.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: July 31, 2026

Regions/Countries

Primary Audience(s)

Channel(s) of Communication

Intervention Level(s)

Language

Topic Areas

Share this Article





View Resource

Leveraging HCD to Improve Gender-Equitable Adolescent Programming

As part of Breakthrough ACTION’s efforts to advance innovative social and behavior change approaches for youth, the project applied human-centered design to develop gender-equitable interventions with very young adolescents in three of the Global Early Adolescent Study’s multi-year cohort sites: Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Denpasar and Semarang, in Indonesia. HCD was selected as a methodology to allow for meaningful youth engagement in designing programs that shape their lives. Breakthrough ACTION produced several resources to document the human-centered design process, including a brief that outlines learnings from Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo [ Bahasa Indonesia | English | French ].

VYA Pilot Package

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: July 31, 2026

Regions/Countries

Primary Audience(s)

Channel(s) of Communication

Intervention Level(s)

Language

Topic Areas

Share this Article