One Health Information Guide and Key Messages on PZDs in Mali

This guide provides standardized, evidence-informed messages to support risk communication and community engagement around priority zoonotic diseases in Mali. Developed under the coordination of the national “One Health” platform, it focuses on promoting preventive behaviors and improving response capacities for nine priority zoonoses, including Ebola, rabies, anthrax, avian influenza, and others. Breakthrough ACTION Mali played a key facilitation role, supporting a literature review, formative research, and participatory message development workshops with stakeholders from human, animal, and environmental health sectors. The guide equips frontline health workers, community leaders, and media actors with consistent, actionable messages adapted to Malian cultural and behavioral contexts, and is aligned with Mali’s International Health Regulations commitments and its Global Health Security priorities.


Guide d’informations et des messages clés Une Seule Santé sur les maladies zoonotiques prioritaires au Mali

Ce guide fournit des messages standardisés et fondés sur des données probantes pour soutenir la communication sur les risques et l’engagement communautaire autour des zoonoses prioritaires au Mali. Développé sous la coordination de la plateforme nationale « Une Seule Santé », il se concentre sur la promotion des comportements préventifs et l’amélioration des capacités de réponse pour neuf zoonoses prioritaires, dont Ebola, la rage, l’anthrax, la grippe aviaire et d’autres. Breakthrough ACTION Mali a joué un rôle clé de facilitation, en soutenant une analyse documentaire, une recherche formative et des ateliers participatifs d’élaboration de messages avec des parties prenantes des secteurs de la santé humaine, animale et environnementale. Le guide fournit aux agents de santé de première ligne, aux leaders communautaires et aux acteurs des médias des messages cohérents et exploitables, adaptés aux contextes culturels et comportementaux maliens. Il est conforme aux engagements du Mali en matière de Règlement sanitaire international et aux priorités de matière de sécurité sanitaire mondiale.

Last modified: July 31, 2026

Language: French

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2020

Compassionate Care Intervention for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Services

The Compassionate Care intervention is a comprehensive set of solutions designed for health care providers, facility managers, mentors, and supervisors in maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) services. It provides strategies to enhance compassion and empathy in health facilities, particularly during the extended postnatal period (up to one year postpartum).

The intervention is intended to foster a compassionate health care environment, benefiting providers and clients by improving job satisfaction, client experiences, and overall service quality. The intervention includes several key components:

  • Practicing Compassion Training: Equips facility leaders and staff with skills to practice compassion in the workplace with one another as well as their clients and address challenges with empathy [ English ]
  • Self-care Practices: Encourages healthcare providers to prioritize their own mental health through mindfulness and relaxation techniques to prevent burnout
  • Client Feedback Mechanisms: Implements an anonymous feedback tool to give clients a voice in evaluating the care they receive, fostering continuous improvement
  • Compassion Champion of the Month: Recognizes staff who consistently demonstrate compassionate care based on client feedback, with rewards and incentives [ English ]
  • Provider Self-Assessment: Enables providers to reflect on their own compassionate care practices and improve further [ English | Swahili]
  • Mentorship and Supervision: Incorporates compassionate care into regular mentorship sessions, helping providers refine their skills and support each other [ English ]
  • Visit Observation Assessment Form: A tool for discreetly assessing client-provider interactions during health visits to ensure compassionate care and identify areas for improvement [ English ]
  • Client Rights Poster: A public declaration of clients’ rights to respectful and compassionate care, displayed prominently in health care facilities so clients can easily see what their rights are [ English | Swahili ]

In addition, Implementation Guidance for the Compassionate Care Intervention aids social and behavior change practitioners and service delivery partners in how to implement each component.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: July 31, 2026

Gender Equity Today for Youth (GET 4 Youth) Pilot Package

The Gender Equity Today for Youth (GET 4 Youth) Pilot Package aims to create a gender-equitable environment in which very young adolescents (VYAs) (10–14 years old) can grow and thrive. The five interventions that comprise this package are designed to complement each other and reach key audiences in the VYA environment. Users can adapt and apply these interventions to other settings and contexts.

Companion Materials

Process Brief: This brief documents process challenges and lessons learned from low- and medium-fidelity co-design, prototyping, and testing activities in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [ Bahasa Indonesia | English | French ]

Advocacy Briefs: These briefs offer policy and program recommendations based on learnings from activities in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

  • Addressing gender inequity during early adolescence in Indonesia: Implications for programs and policies from a human-centered design process [ Bahasa Indonesia | English ]
  • Engaging parents in sexual and reproductive health: Programs for very young adolescents in the Democratic Republic of the Congo [ English | French ]

Message Framework: This message framework can be used by advocates working to increase funding for and improve the implementation of programs that seek to create a gender-equitable environment for VYAs. [ Bahasa Indonesia | English ]

PILOT PACKAGE RESOURCES

EDITABLE FILES

Frequently Asked Questions

The pilot package is currently available in English; it will be available in Bahasa Indonesia in early 2024.

This package was developed using a human-centered design (HCD) approach, meaning it was created alongside the intended audiences across multiple rounds of testing. These intended audiences include key influencers across the very young adolescent (VYA) environment, as well as potential implementers and facilitators. One round of testing was conducted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Learnings were taken from that project and then applied to three additional rounds of designing and testing across two sites in Indonesia: Denpasar and Semarang.

The actual amount will vary depending on location, but the itemized resources required for piloting or implementing are available in the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package.

This largely depends on the resources available to the piloting organization, as well as the size of the location or jurisdiction of the pilot. While there is no set period, organizations should plan for at least six months, with evaluation occurring during and immediately after. Evaluating the pilot could take an additional three months, depending on the size of the population reached.

While the package provides detailed adaptation guidance for each intervention, the best place to start is the Theory of Change (see pages 6–7 of the GET 4 Youth Package). The Theory of Change is rooted in the need to address gender norms. For example, if suicide and teen pregnancy are identified as the most salient issues related to VYA health and well-being in your community, your first task in adapting this package would be to link these topics and their corresponding outcomes to gender norms—what, if any, are the gender norms that are influencing these outcomes of interest?

This is such an important question and a critical reason why harmful gender norms are often not addressed. We learned through the design and test process that a critical first step is to level-set with people about what we mean when we say gender and gender norms; for this package, we simply are referring to the social expectations for boys and girls.

To that end, we created a customizable Overview Presentation within the Multi-Stakeholder Forum intervention that is designed to help level-set with audiences, specifically with public officials or government representatives who may be limited in what they can address.

It is important to note this package was designed with and for heterosexual, cisgender people due to the predominance of this relationship type and the legal and political context in Indonesia. Breakthrough ACTION recognizes this as an inherent limitation and encourages those who may adapt these materials for use in other contexts to include sexual and gender minorities in all aspects of the adaptation, implementation, and evaluation to ensure this package meets the needs of as many people as possible.

This is an important point, and particularly salient to one of the intended audiences for this project: low-income urban families. We recognize that in these settings, families often have competing priorities, especially if they have other children and the parents or caregivers work or take care of older relatives. This is why we made sure the family space includes whole families; though the material is largely intended for caregivers, all children in the family are welcome to participate. Additionally, building buy-in and support from community leaders through the Multi-Stakeholder Forum is intended to create an environment in which families receive positive reinforcement and resources to participate in the interventions.

Since facilitation is a very important component, detailed guidance and resources for facilitators are included in the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package. Please see the Facilitator Guide for detailed information, as well as the intervention-specific guidance within the package.

This is a pilot package that has not yet been piloted and, therefore, has not been evaluated. However, the process undertaken to develop this package incorporated the best practices of HCD and social and behavior change (SBC) to create a program with the greatest chance for success. The HCD process enabled us to refine and test prototypes across three rounds of testing, where we tested for desirability, feasibility, and the potential for scalability. See the graphic below for details about what was tested in each round. For more information about the design and test process and results, please see the Design & Test Reports.

Additionally, we infused known SBC mechanisms into the interventions themselves. These are listed in the Theory of Change on page 6 of the intervention package.

We started knowing we needed a multi-level approach that addressed key influencers and systems in the VYA environment, based on evidence and lessons learned from the literature, Global Early Adolescent Study research, and previous programming for VYAs. With this in mind, we developed a series of “design challenges” for the low-fidelity co-design workshop that would lead to a package of interventions operating at multiple levels of the Socio-Ecological Model (see page 13 in the Design & Test Report: Low- and Medium-Fidelity Prototyping for the list of design challenges). We also worked with our intended audiences to understand which gender norms are most applicable to this population and issue (mental health and bullying). This was done by starting with the gender norms developed through formative research with 15 countries worldwide and identified as particularly salient to young adolescents. We then used co-design to identify which specific norms we should be targeting to shift to achieve our intended outcomes.
After the co-design workshop, our team developed these concepts into low-fidelity prototypes for testing. During this stage, the Core Design Team*—with expertise in gender, VYAs, and SBC—used what we know from theory, evidence, and past programming to inform prototype development. For example, the interactive video was designed to prompt collective reflection and discussion on gender norms, diffuse positive social norms, and create opportunities for observed social normative decision-making, while the family space fosters empathy building between caregivers and VYAs and employs role modeling to strengthen caregivers’ listening and communication skills.
These “change mechanisms” are a mix of evidence-informed strategies and best practices. You can find the full list of change mechanisms and our Theory of Change in the GET 4 Youth Pilot Package. You can find more information about the design process in our Design & Test Reports.
*The approach to ensuring human-centered co-design in this activity draws inspiration from the Four Voices of Design Model© created by ThinkPlace, the HCD lead for Breakthrough ACTION. The intention of leveraging this model is to suspend the power that comes from rank and ensure that all participants have equal power and the opportunity to contribute. Therefore, one of the first steps was to establish a Core Design Team: a multi-disciplinary group that coalesces the four voices of design—intent, design, experience, and expertise—and the necessary diversity of skills and experience to drive the design process. More information about the Core Design Team can be found on page 7 of the Design & Test Report: Low- and Medium-Fidelity Prototyping.

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: July 30, 2026

Together We Decide: A Game for Building Health and Harmony Within Families

In South Sudan, Breakthrough ACTION adapted a game designed by ideas42 and IntraHealth for use in Uganda to create “Together We Decide.” Using behavioral design theories, “Together We Decide” creates a safe space for participants to learn and discuss how to build health and harmony within their families. The game is designed to increase male engagement in the family planning process and build familiarity with child spacing methods while allowing couples to explore the outcome of various child spacing choices and gain comfort in discussing these topics within the family and with health workers. The game encourages participants to consider how child spacing methods might help them achieve their goals for their family and to make choices together for their families.

Objectives

  • Provide accurate health information on family planning to men and women.
  • Redefine roles and norms around decision-making and participation.
  • Demonstrate equitable communication and decision-making around family planning.
  • Encourage couples to seek advice on family planning from health care providers.

Resources

Game Guide [PDF]

Game Cards [PDF]

Child Spacing Planning Card [PDF]

Last modified: July 26, 2026

Language: English

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2024

Producing and Managing an SBC Mass Media Campaign

Providing a step-by-step operational guide, this practical toolkit equips public health practitioners and media managers to design, produce, broadcast, and monitor effective social and behavior change mass media campaigns. The resource grounds campaign creation in behavioral theory, audience insights, and rigorous pre-testing to ensure that creative content achieves meaningful programmatic impact. It features adaptable blank templates, detailed execution instructions, real-world campaign examples, and a campaign development Gantt chart to streamline time-intensive vendor contracting and production timelines. Strategic planners and creative agencies can leverage these gold-standard protocols to guide media production and align complementary community-level communication channels.

Last modified: July 26, 2026

Language: English

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2025

Menstrual Health Promotion Materials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Addressing socio-cultural taboos surrounding menstruation, this pioneering social and behavior change resource package promotes dignified menstrual hygiene practices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The collection features a standardized National Strategic Communication Plan message guide alongside a visual image box educational tool designed for low-literacy community settings. These materials facilitate open dialogues, dispel myths, and provide adolescent girls and their support systems with accurate hygiene management guidance. Community health facilitators, educators, and program implementors can deploy these resources across school, community, and clinical settings to build inclusive awareness and foster supportive environments.

Resources

Guide des messages [PDF]

Boite à images [PDF]

Dépliant pour les filles [PDF]

Posters [PDF]


Matériel de promotion de la santé menstruelle en République démocratique du Congo

Répondant aux tabous socioculturels entourant la menstruation, cette collection de ressources de changement social et comportemental promeut des pratiques d’hygiène menstruelle dignes en République démocratique du Congo. Le paquet comprend un guide de messages aligné sur le plan national stratégique ainsi qu’une boîte à images conçue pour les milieux communautaires à faible niveau d’alphabétisation. Ces outils facilitent un dialogue ouvert, dissipent les mythes et fournissent aux jeunes filles et à leur entourage des conseils précis sur la gestion de l’hygiène. Les relais communautaires, les éducateurs et les responsables de programmes peuvent déployer ces ressources à l’école, dans la communauté et dans les centres de santé pour renforcer la sensibilisation et créer un environnement favorable.

Guide des messages [PDF]

Boite à images [PDF]

Dépliant pour les filles [PDF]

Posters [PDF]

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Date of Publication: July 26, 2026

How to Mobilize Communities for Health and Social Change

Adapting the traditional Community Action Cycle to incorporate elements of Partnership Defined Quality, this comprehensive package offers a hybrid model for community mobilization in South Sudan. The approach brings local populations and health service providers together to jointly identify, prioritize, and solve barriers to accessing reproductive health and family planning services. The resource collection features a detailed facilitator manual, a participant workbook, and three specialized implementation toolkits designed for field mobilization teams. Program managers, trainers, and community leaders can utilize these practical guides to build local capacity, foster social accountability, and drive sustained normative change.

Resources:

Mobilizing Communities for Health and Social Change: Facilitator Manual [PDF]

Mobilizing Communities for Health and Social Change: Participant Manual [PDF]

Toolkit One: Community Entry and Organizing for Collective Action [PDF]

Toolkit Two: Communities Defining the Issues, Exploring Strengths, and Setting Priorities [PDF]

Toolkit Three: Communities Develop Local Solutions [PDF]

Last modified: July 26, 2026

Language: English

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2024

Community Empathways

Designed for community settings across West Africa, this interactive card-based activity fosters intergenerational empathy and breaks down socio-cultural barriers surrounding youth reproductive health. The tool guides young people and adult community leaders through structured conversations that build mutual understanding and prompt adults to actively support adolescent family planning needs. The comprehensive package includes a card deck, a detailed facilitator guide with sample scripts, and a step-by-step instructional video that incorporates video assets from the Merci Mon Héros campaign. SBC practitioners, local organizations, and community facilitators can utilize this toolkit to create safe spaces that transform adult attitudes and expand youth access to essential health services.


Version Communautaire d’Empathways

Conçu pour les milieux communautaires en Afrique de l’Ouest, cet outil basé sur un jeu de cartes interactif favorise l’empathie intergénérationnelle et lève les barrières socio-culturelles entourant la santé reproductive des jeunes. L’activité guide les jeunes et les leaders communautaires adultes à travers des conversations structurées qui renforcent la compréhension mutuelle et incitent les adultes à soutenir activement les besoins des adolescents en matière de planification familiale. Le kit complet comprend un jeu de cartes, un guide du facilitateur avec des exemples de scripts et une vidéo tutorielle intégrant les vidéos de la campagne Merci Mon Héros. Les praticiens du CSC, les organisations locales et les animateurs peuvent utiliser cet outil pour créer des espaces sûrs qui transforment les attitudes des adultes et améliorent l’accès des jeunes aux services de santé.


Guide de Facilitateur
 [PDF]

Vidéo Tuto [YouTube]

Last modified: July 20, 2026

Language: English, French

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2022

SBC Checklist to Develop and Assess Costed Implementation Plans for Demand Creation

This strategic guidance tool helps governments, donors, and implementation teams integrate social and behavior change (SBC) best practices into Costed Implementation Plans (CIPs) for family planning and reproductive health. The checklist guides users through key stages including situational assessment, strategy formulation, activity budgeting, and knowledge management, while explicitly integrating cross-cutting elements like gender and youth. Grounded in High Impact Practices (HIPs), it allows planning teams to evaluate whether demand creation activities are technically sound, systematically costed, and properly monitored across the project lifecycle. While not a replacement for full SBC capacity assessments, this practical tool ensures that national and sub-national health strategies maximize their potential for sustained behavioral impact.

Guide to The SBC Checklist to Develop and Assess Costed Implementation Plans for Demand Creation [PDF]


Le checklist CSC pour l’élaboration et l’évaluation du PANB pour la création de demande

Cet outil d’orientation stratégique aide les gouvernements, les bailleurs de fonds et les équipes de mise en œuvre à intégrer les meilleures pratiques de changement social et comportemental (CSC) dans les Plans d’Action Nationaux Budgétisés (PANB) pour la planification familiale et la santé de la reproduction. La liste de contrôle guide les utilisateurs à travers des étapes clés telles que l’analyse de situation, la formulation de stratégies, la budgétisation et la gestion des connaissances, tout en intégrant explicitement le genre et la jeunesse. Ancrée dans les Pratiques à Haut Impact (PHI), elle permet d’évaluer si les activités de création de demande sont techniquement solides et suivies tout au long du cycle de projet. Sans remplacer une évaluation approfondie des capacités en CSC, cet outil pratique garantit que les stratégies de santé maximisent leur potentiel d’impact comportemental durable.

Le checklist CSC pour l’élaboration et l’évaluation du PANB pour la création de demande [EXCEL]

Guide d’utilisation du checklist CSC pour l’élaboration et l’évaluation du PANB pour la création de demande [PDF]

Last modified: July 20, 2026

Language: English, French

Source: Johna Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2023

Nigeria Community Engagement Resources and Tools

Breakthrough ACTION implements an integrated social and behavior change program that addresses priority behaviors in five states in Nigeria. Central to this program are health dialogues, compound meetings, and house-to-house visits with referrals as a call to action. Community volunteers, Ward Development Committee members, religious and traditional leaders, and other community members implement these activities.

The project produced a package of resources in English and Hausa to standardize messages about priority health behaviors related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, nutrition, COVID-19, obstetric fistula, and environmental and personal hygiene. The resources focus on life stages and multiplier and gateway behaviors so that community members leading activities address the right behaviors with the right audience at the right time.

When developing these resources, Breakthrough ACTION considered the health areas, audience literacy levels, and geographic contexts. Social and behavior change practitioners interested in integrated programming at the community level can use the various tools.

Tools for Community Health Volunteers

Integrated Community Mobilization Flipchart

The flipchart is a guide that community health volunteers use for discussions. It addresses the following lifestages:

  • Lifestages 1 and 2: Early pregnancy (first 6 months) and late pregnancy, birth, and the first few weeks after birth [ English | Hausa ]
  • Lifestages 3 and 4: Families with infants and children under five years and all couples of reproductive age (not currently pregnant) [ English | Hausa ]
Gateway and Multiplier Behavior Resources

There are two resources for community dialogues:

  • The Community Events Priority Behavior Picture Guide: A large visual aid used to facilitate discussions during community events [ English | Hausa ]
  • The Community Events Dialogue Guide: A summary of gateway and multiplier behaviors that complements the picture guide [ English | Hausa ]
Community Health Information Booklet

The booklet highlights priority health behaviors and emphasizes the call to action for each behavior [ English | Hausa ]

Last modified: July 15, 2026

Language: English, Hausa

Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

Year of Publication: 2023