CHANGE is a five-year project (2013-2018) of USAID/Philippines that addresses the need for strategic and sustainable communication interventions that will generate increased demand for MCH, FP, TB, and HIV/AIDS services in the Philippines, and ultimately, contribute to the reduction of maternal and child deaths, increase in contraceptive prevalence rate, reduction in TB prevalence, and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

USAID CHANGE works with the Department of Health (DOH) to develop and implement national communication campaigns, messages, standards, modules, tools and templates on MCH, FP, TB and HIV/AIDS. The project also provides technical assistance to DOH Regional Offices, local government units and various USAID health projects in localizing communication campaigns and materials.

ACTIVITIES

• Technical Assistance to DOH and Other Agencies Communication products and materials are cascaded down from DOH central to regional levels. CHANGE contributes to changing mindsets and behaviors of health communicators themselves—helping them acquire skills to “sell” healthy behaviors and create demand for health services.
• Technical Assistance to Local Government Units CHANGE collaborates with USAID/Philippines health projects and local government units to ensure proper localization of key messages, as well as ensure that health service providers on-the-ground are equipped with tools necessary for them to effectively inform and deliver USAID’s “brand promise” of Family Health Improved.
• Technical Assistance to USAID/Philippines Health Projects CHANGE also provides strategic and creative insight for the communication needs of FP, MCH, TB and HIV/AIDS projects of USAID/Philippines to ensure synergy with national communication campaigns.

RESULTS

• Three nationwide TV campaigns on TB reached over 17 million target individuals per campaign, contributing to the increasing proportion of population willing to work with former TB patients and greater awareness amongst target population about the Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course (DOTS) as best treatment for TB
• FP TV campaign contributed to raising the proportion of target population persuaded to avail of FP services from 60 percent at start to 76 percent at end of the campaign
• 159 public health professionals trained in strategic thinking in health communications in the first two years of the Communication for Communicators (C4C) School
• Emotional quotient and social marketing modules developed to enhance capacities of health service providers to “sell” healthy behaviors and health services
• Technical assistance extended to the DOH for design of billboards on TB; PhilHealth for production of a TV commercial; and Quezon City and Cebu tri-city, in collaboration with USAID’s Reaching Out to Most-at-risk Populations (ROMP) project, for campaigns to encourage voluntary HIV counseling and testing among vulnerable groups

GOAL

To increase demand for family planning (FP), maternal and child health (MCH), tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS services.

OBJECTIVES

• Make healthy behaviors desirable
• Turn the first-moment-of-truth—that first encounter between the health worker and the “consumer”—into a more positive experience that will help ensure continued positive behavior change
• Develop a corps of dynamic health communicators capable of creating and delivering strategic and creative health messages at the national and local levels