Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria Risk Communication and Community Engagement Tools and Resources

Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria’s risk communication and community engagement interventions support the Government of Nigeria in preventing, detecting, and responding to public health emergencies. The project produced and implemented a coordinated package of social and behavior change interventions tailored to address specific public health emergencies and infectious diseases as part of these efforts.

  • To achieve this, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria:
  • implemented a coordinated package of SBC interventions including mass media campaigns and community-level activities tailored to address specific public health emergencies including infectious diseases like Lassa fever, Mpox, and COVID-19.
  • strengthened the capacity of government, partners, healthcare providers, community leaders, and other community actors to effectively communicate health messages and facilitate behavior change during public health emergencies.

We’re sharing the resources we developed to implement the project’s interventions.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: August 13, 2024

Social and Behavior Change to Increase Tuberculosis Care-Seeking in Nigeria: Tools and Resources

In 2021, Nigeria accounted for 4.4% of the world’s tuberculosis (TB) cases, ranking sixth among nations with the highest case rate. About 500,000 Nigerians are infected with TB annually. Testing and treatment for TB are free at government health facilities in Nigeria. Despite this, Nigeria struggles to identify TB cases; in 2018, the country’s National TB, Leprosy, and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme (NTBLCP) was only able to track 24% of cases. Several factors have kept Nigerians from seeking care for cough and fever and getting tested for TB. People presumed to have TB often delay seeking care until the advanced stages of the disease, and those who do seek care tend to do so at patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) and community pharmacies rather than health facilities.

Through a strategic package of SBC interventions, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria has contributed to the NTBLCP’s goal of increasing the number of TB cases and is currently supporting 8 states in the country. Breakthrough ACTION has developed and implemented social and behavior change interventions to increase the number of tuberculosis (TB) cases identified in Nigeria. These resources can be adapted and used by professionals interested in using SBC approaches to address TB or practitioners implementing TB programs.

Source: Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: August 13, 2024

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.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: August 13, 2024

‘Protecting You, Protecting Us’ COVID-19 Campaign Materials, Guyana

Breakthrough ACTION Guyana’s ‘Protecting you, Protecting us’ COVID-19 campaign produced a set of materials to inform the public about protection from the virus and to bring to their attention other issues regarding COVID-19.

The materials include:

Radio Spots

TV Spots

  • Physical Distancing – addresses a common COVID-19 myth in Guyana that drinking wine can prevent COVID-19, and it also covers physical distancing. Includes Spanish subtitles
  • Wearing Masks – emphasizes wearing masks in public. It includes Spanish subtitles
  • Handwashing – promotes hand washing. It includes Spnaish substitiles

Posters

Source: Breakthrough ACTION/Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: August 9, 2021

Intersexions

The first season of this TV drama series comprises 26 episodes that examine how that which remains unsaid in love, relationships, and sex may place us at greatest risk of HIV infection. In the first season each of the episodes built on different characters forming a romantic or sexual link in a chain binding all South Africans. It focused on love, loss, heartbreak, joy, friendship, hatred, honesty and deceit. Believable characters acted out situations anyone could relate to, with each episode teasing you with what might come next.

The series was extensively supported through weekly discussions on 10 SABC radio stations, public relations to promote the show, a blog featuring weekly updates on the show, and social networking through Facebook and Twitter. Surveys were conducted by the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), involving a post-broadcast, qualitative audience evaluation conducted in six provinces between April and June 2011. Results found that the viewers found the stories believable and relatable, and that the shows prompted discussions among viewers.

The show is the product of a collaborative partnership between SABC 1, SABC Education and Johns Hopkins Health and Education in SA (JHHESA). JHHESA interviewed over 2,000 people in 39 communities to understand their stories and their perceptions on current issues. It combined that research with a national communication survey of 10,000 people and fed the results to the Intersexions creative team.The show won 11 South African Television and Film Awards, a Peabody Award, and an Africomnet Best Mass Media Award 2012.

Source: Johns Hopkins Health and Education South Africa

Date of Publication: May 26, 2021