Behaviour Change and Communication

Background and Objectives

For many Afghan families child and maternal deaths can be reduced if they are empowered with knowledge and skills to improve household care practices. Since almost 90% of childbirths in Afghanistan take place at home, it is critical that behaviour change takes place at the household level.

The Country Programme of Co-operation 2006-2008 between UNICEF and the Government of Afghanistan (GoA) aspires to use communication strategies, especially social mobilisation to induce positive behavioural change at the family and community level to improve lives of women and children. Therefore the project aims to enhance behaviour changes, promote health, education and well being of children and their families and increase the participation of Afghan youth, women and men in the development and advancement of their country.

Activities

The main activities include:
* Empowering 200 communities (32,000 families and 224,000 people) by providing different participatory methods in four districts of Jabul saraj, Zinda janp, Daman and Bamyan Markaz;
* Establishing strong linkage between CDCs, village health committees and community health workers networks in all districts;
* Establishing and maintaining a communication system among households, communities and district level to address the health related issues, status, problems and concern to improve health conditions of mothers and children;
* Conducting the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Methodology Workshop;
* Forming a team of social mobilisers, a village planner and a district manager for each district;
* Establishing village health committees and village education committees.

Results (2009)

* Through 302 refresher PLAs conducted in 4 provinces (Bamyan, Herat, Kandahar and Parwan), a total of 15,100 (7,550 males and 7,550 females) community members have been equipped with basic knowledge in health, education, prevention of disease and its management, immunization, sanitation, life skills and self evaluation for the development of their communities and healthy environment;
* 427 Community Network Support Groups have been established through the PLA process with 8,620 community members (4,310 males and 4,310 females) participated for better understanding and transferring the BCC recommended information to each community individual;
* Established the Cross Community Network and Linkages (CCNL) through the PLA process in the communities;
* Regularly conduct coordination meetings with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation Development and project implementing partners;
* Developed and shared Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) modules among the partners and translated to Dari and Pashto languages.