Deadline: 10-Oct-21
The United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Mission in Ethiopia (USAID/Ethiopia) is seeking applications for Social and Behavior Change for Health (SBCH) Activity to increase sustained adoption of appropriate health and nutrition behaviors.
The project was designed to align with the Government of Ethiopia’s (GOE’s) Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP 2015–2020), the vision of which is “to see healthy, productive, and prosperous Ethiopians.” Although the GOE had made tremendous progress in developing state-of-the-art health policies and expanding both its physical infrastructure and availability of trained service providers, utilization of potentially high-impact services such as antenatal care, family planning, facility-based labor and delivery services, and PMTCT services remained low.
To address the majority of health issues and diseases that are preventable, the Communication for Health project was designed to promote the routine practice of effective preventative behaviors and increase the utilization of related health services.
This Activity supports USAID’s effort to integrate development activities within certain geographic woredas. These sectors include health, education, WASH, nutrition, and youth programming, and may also include economic growth and resilience programming. The Applicant is expected to coordinate with other designated implementing partners (on a woreda-by-woreda basis) from other sectors.
Objectives
- Expanded access to health services and products is clearly needed to improve key development indicators in Ethiopia. Increased understanding, acceptance and demand for these resources are equally essential. The Social and Behavior Change for Health (SBCH) activity.
- Notice of Funding Opportunity (NFO) is intended to foster positive health practices in households and communities and support changes in cultural norms that will reinforce and maintain these practices.
- For this NFO, SBC is defined as the coordinated use of a range of communication and non communication approaches – including mass media, community-level activities, nudging and interpersonal communication – to change individual and family behaviors, and improve social and gender norms in support of improved health outcomes. High-quality SBC is evidence- and theory driven, and identifies and addresses specific drivers of health beliefs and behaviors at individual, interpersonal and collective levels. It follows a proven model for planning, creative development, implementation, and evaluation, and emphasizes ongoing engagement and participation of the primary audience and other stakeholders. This activity will have the following objectives:
- Adopt and sustain positive behaviors at individual, family, and community levels,
- Increase demand and timely care-seeking for health and nutrition services, and
- Improve the enabling environment for gender equitable and healthy behaviors.
Focus Areas
The SBCH activity will build on prior USAID investments in Ethiopia, such as Communication for Health (C4H), Transform: Primary Health Care (TPHC) and Transform: Health in Developing Regions (THDR); and align with the Empowered Communities for Better Health (ECBH) project and USAID/Ethiopia’s country development cooperation strategy (CDCS 2019-2024). SBCH, when feasible, works with the Ministry of Health (MoH) at national and sub-national levels with a significant focus and engagement at the woreda (district) level.
This activity will focus on:
- family planning (FP);
- adolescent and reproductive health (RH);
- maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH);
- maternal and child nutrition;
- hygiene and sanitation; malaria;
- zoonotic disease risk communication.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $35,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $35,000,000
- Award Floor: $34,000,000
Geographic Areas
- SBCH will operate in seven rural regions of Ethiopia namely, Benishangul Gumuz (BG), Gambella, Tigray, Sidama, Amhara, Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s (SNNP).
Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility for this NOFO is not restricted.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=335467