FHI 360 leads an all-Ghanaian team of partners, including Norsaac, Savana Signatures, MullenLowe Accra and the Ghana Community Radio Network, to carry out the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Ghana Accelerating Social and Behavior Change (ASBC) activity. The ASBC activity supports the government of Ghana and the Ghana Health Service Health Promotion Division (GHS-HPD) to lead social and behavior change (SBC) efforts using tested mass media and community engagement strategies. With this support, the ASBC activity aims to contribute to an increase in the sustained adoption of health behaviors and practices, including timely use of health services and products, nationally and in the 17 USAID Zones of Influence in northern Ghana, where severe health disparities persist.
The ASBC activity is building on knowledge gained from past successes related to SBC and organizational capacity strengthening to achieve the following:
- The government of Ghana leads, harmonizes and manages effective SBC programs at the national, regional and community levels.
- Communities demand, identify and implement practical solutions to address barriers to healthy behaviors and practices.
- The private sector promotes healthy behaviors and practices in support of the public health agenda.
The ASBC activity will focus particularly on increasing the adoption of priority “accelerator” and “gateway” behaviors in the areas of maternal, newborn and child health; sexual and reproductive health; malaria; COVID-19; and water, sanitation and hygiene. These are behaviors that when addressed are most likely to result in a significant reduction in morbidity and mortality (accelerator) and behaviors that may have a further cascading effect on other priority behaviors (gateway).
