Another Option Partners with Feed the Future and USAID/Zimbabwe’s Fostering Agribusiness for Resilient Markets (FARM) Managed by Chemonics International

Behavior Change for Resilient Markets

Another Option were advisors on social and behavior change to USAID Zimbabwe’s Feed the Future Fostering Agribusiness for Resilient Markets (FARM) Activity managed by Chemonics International. We worked closely with the technical experts and the SBC team to develop low literacy and beautifully illustrated communication materials for farmers, agriculture extension workers, and influencers on a wide range of agriculture topics and guides, e.g., Fall Army Worm, sugar bean cultivation, artificial insemination, sorghum production, and borrowing for purpose.

Shout out to our various colleagues and leaders in WASH, Nutrition, and maternal and child health for sharing their SBC materials that we adapted to our Zimbabwe work. Diet diversity, handwashing, the nutrition wheel. Also, a big thanks to the amazing FARM team for coordinating the design and production and pre-testing the materials with smallholder farmers and the field team.

Very few SBC materials on agriculture have been created. USG spends millions on creating materials and then they are not readily available to be used. These are posted on our website. Please use them if you are working in any of these areas. If you use them, do drop us a note, we’d love to know they have a life beyond FARM.

Another Option LLC supports USAID-funded job training program in Egypt

The USAID-funded project, Workforce Egypt, is helping to transform Egypt’s technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system to produce the skills needed for a globally competitive Egyptian market by creating sustainable jobs, especially for youth and women, and institutionalizing structural labor market reforms that can support workforce development now and in the future.

Another Option is providing technical assistance to the Workforce Egypt Project in the design and implementation of a Public Awareness Strategy to improve the social perception of TVET in Egypt.

This five-year project is working in 15 governorates in Egypt and is managed by MTC International Development Holding Company, LLC.

Another Option Co-Authors Poster Presentation with Partner JSI Showcasing Work with Faith Leaders in Uganda

Another Option co-authored a poster presentation with partner John Snow, Inc. (JSI) of their work with faith leaders in Uganda that was presented at the 2020 Evidence Summit on Strategic Religious Engagement. Hosted by USAID’s Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives and co-convened by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, United States Institute of Peace , and Templeton Religion Trust, the Evidence Summit on Strategic Religious Engagement aims to provide key empirical data in order to shape and develop relevant technical assistance for the Agency’s field offices worldwide. Michael Odong, SBC Advisor for JSI, presented the poster.

The poster, titled Faith Leaders Speak to the People About Health, showcases community work conducted as part of the USAID/Uganda Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services - North, Lango (RHITES-N, Lango) Project, managed by JSI. The Social and Behavior Change effort aims to empower faith leaders to facilitate community dialogues on social and cultural barriers to improve health outcomes. The Evidence Summit was held virtually from October 5-8th, 2020.

View the presentation

Learn more about the RHITES-N, Lango project

Building Interpersonal Communication Skills for Providers

A consistent barrier to seeking health services at clinics is the negative treatment clients receive by health providers. This often keeps clients away from clinics, causing them to delay or abandon treatment for illnesses. To address this problem, Another Option has developed the Interpersonal Communication Skills for Providers: In-Service Training Guide for Health Providers.  

The guide presents the barriers to IPC and ways to improve communication with clients.

Learn more about the USAID Uganda-funded Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services (RHITES) North – Lango project here.

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Downloadable Resources

Interpersonal Communication for Community Outreach Conversation Cards (English) (Langa)

Interpersonal Communication for Community Outreach Facilitators Guide (English) (Langa)

Interpersonal Communication for Community Outreach Participants Guide (English) (Langa)

GATHER poster (English)

Pictured: A pre-test of the IPC for Providers Guide. In sessions like the one pictured above, Another Option conducts pre-tests of all its communications materials.

Another Option Co-Presents at CORE Group's 2019 Global Health Practitioner Conference

In partnership with John Snow, Inc. (JSI), Another Option co-produced a training workshop titled Understanding Stigma and Promoting Social Inclusion in the Community at the 2019 Regional Global Health Practitioner Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The CORE conference focused on sharing progress and identifying solutions to persistent community health challenges, strengthening the role of community health workers and informing global, national and local policies and plans. The conference included a day of training workshops as well as the formal program.

During the conference's first day of training workshops, Michael Odong, the Social and Behavior Change Advisor for JSI Uganda, conducted a workshop on stigma reduction for HIV, TB GBV and teen pregnancy. The training featured Stigma Training: A Tool Kit for Community Engagement, developed by Another Option as part of the USAID Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services (RHITES) - North, Lango project in Uganda.

View the presentation

Learn more about RHITES-N, Lango

New PSAs recorded to support early grade reading in Nepal

The Another Option team on the ground in Nepal has just recorded additional public service announcements in two more languages, Newari and Maithili. The PSAs support our ongoing work on the USAID/Nepal’s Early Grade Reading Program (EGRP).

Innovative, Low-cost and Effective Community and CBOs Model for Supporting Schools and Teachers

USAID Read Liberia Activity is a five-year early grade reading (EGR) activity managed by RTI International in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education (MOE). Read Liberia objective is to improve EGR skills of Liberian students in grades one and two (G1 and G2) and to pilot test support for the development of emergent literacy skills among kindergarten (KG) students.

Read Liberia has designed an SBC component that applies behavioral theories that targets real and perceived barriers, and motivates parents, teachers and community members to adopt positive behaviors, or practices, that support a child’s ability to learn to read. Read Liberia’s integrated SBC plan uses multiple strategies, including, communication such as interpersonal communication (IPC), limited mass media, advocacy, social mobilization, and community engagement.

Read Liberia’s Community and CBOs model for supporting schools and teachers in early grade reading is one piece of Read Liberia’s overarching SBC Communication Plan. This document presents in detail the Read Liberia Activity’s innovative, low-cost, and effective model for community engagement. The first section describes the fundamentals of community engagement and that it is a strategy of Read Liberia’s integrated Social and Behavior Change approach. The second section of the document illustrates the “how” of community engagement and its application under the Read Liberia Activity.

This document has been prepared in fulfillment of IR 4, Technical Deliverable No.1, of the USAID Read Liberia Activity contract. It was prepared with RTI’s Read Liberia subcontractor Another Option, LLC.

New Social and Behavior Change Communications Report prepared for Freedom House

Another Option provided a one-day training on Social and Behavior Change to the Washington headquarters of Freedom House. The one-day training was an overview of SBC process and its application on international issues such as global health and voter registration and voting. The report was the syllabus for the training.

Download

Report - Freedom House

Training - Freedom House

Another Option records new Public Service Announcements in Nepal

Another Option just recorded several new public service announcements as part of our ongoing work on the USAID/Nepal’s Early Grade Reading Program (EGRP). The radio spots were developed in close partnership with Nepal’s Ministry of Education. The PSA’s will be broadcast in several languages on radio across ten districts in Nepal.

Maternal Health Peer Education Training Materials developed for USAID in Uganda

Michael Odong, SBC Advisor for USAID's RHITES,N-Lango Project in Uganda, conducts a training for Volunteer Health Teams (VHTs) of the Maternal and Child Health Wheel of Life SBC tool in Dukolo, Uganda to support interpersonal communication.

The Wheel traces the different behaviors a woman and family should follow for good health of the mother and the newborn child. VHTs will use the tool in home visits with pregnant women and new mothers in the Lango region. The tool was adopted from USAID's Nutri-Salud in Guatemala.