Communication and Social Mobilization Package
Achieving and maintaining the goals of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) and of national malaria programs require correct and consistent use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), acceptance of indoor residual spraying (IRS), and compliance with treatment and prevention therapies. Past malaria control programs have taught us the importance of communication and community participation to attain sustainable shifts in the behaviors of individuals and communities around malaria treatment and prevention. The new resources and myriad new partners for malaria programs now provide an opportunity to fully address the underlying behaviors related to malaria prevention and treatment in the design and operation of programs.
- Tool Designer Organization:
- President's Malaria Initiative (PMI)
- Download:
Guidelines and Primer from PMI web site- Contact:
- Dr Elizabeth Fox, PhD, Deputy Director, GH/HIDN, Senior Communications Expert USAID/GH/HIDN
Dr Beatie Divine, MA, MBA Health Communications Specialist Malaria Branch, Division of Parasitic Diseases
Dr Kamden Hoffmann, MA, MPH Malaria Technical Advisor
Summary of main features
- Purpose
- The purpose of these guidelines is to assist in the development, implementation, and monitoring of programs to influence behaviors and mobilize communities to create long-term normative shifts towards desired behaviors and to sustain enabling behaviors around the four PMI interventions. These behaviors are:
- Increased demand for malaria services and products and acceptance of IRS
- Improved adherence to treatment regimens and IPTp during pregnancy
- Regular ITN use by the general population, focusing on vulnerable groups including pregnant women and children under five, and prompt, appropriate treatment with ACTs within 24 hours of onset of symptoms
- Community involvement in malaria control
- Scope of interventions
- These guidelines were developed for PMI country teams along with counterparts in national malaria control programs and other relevant departments within the ministry of health and NGO/FBO partners. The guidelines can be used in the selection, management, monitoring, and process evaluation of the PMI communication and social mobilization activities. The guidelines also can be a tool for local capacity building with a wide range of communication partners. In some cases, the PMI team itself will employ the guidelines to design and carry out programs. In other cases, the PMI team will use the guidelines to decide what broad programs need to be implemented, and in-country contractors, grantees, and/or local partners will use them to design and implement programs.
- Limitations
- The guidelines are focused on programming community-level behavioral change communication and social mobilization. It is not clear how they tie into national programming.
- Output
- The key elements (plan, implement, monitor, and evaluate) of a behavior/social mobilization process for malaria control
- Time frame
- None
- Potential users
- IEC/BCC units of national malaria control programmes
- Skills required
- Familiarity with basic communication and social mobilization concepts and terminology
- Type of software
- Word processing
- User manual available?
- Not applicable
- Type and length of training required
- The document is 44 pages long and requires concentrated reading at least once, with added benefit from additional readings
- Available languages
- English
- Country applications
- Some unnamed PMI countries, including Ghana (referenced)
- Last update and version