Ghana Sustainable Change Project (GSCP) (2004 - 2009)

The purpose of the five-year USAID project was to improve the health of Ghanaians through the use of state-of-the-art communications and social marketing initiatives. The project supported nutrition as an integral aspect of all of the USAID mission's health programs - including child survival, maternal and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS. One of the project's priority interventions was timely and appropriate breastfeeding. GSCP had four overall objectives: 1) build capacity within the public and private sector to support effective behavior change activities; 2) develop behavior change strategies that used mass media campaigns and supported community activities to reinforce desired health behaviors; 3) strengthen the ability of government officials and policymakers to advocate for programs and activities that create positive behavior change; and 4) use social marketing to promote products and services that support positive behavior change. In the later years of the project, consistent with USAID's portfolio realignment, the project foci were changed to: 1) capacity building to strengthen public and private capacity for targeted BCC at district level and below; 2) targeted BCC activities - for example, developing and implementing targeted BCC activities in family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, malaria, and other public health threats, with an emphasis on interpersonal communication at the district level and below; 3) targeted HIV/AIDS communication support, including developing HIV/AIDS communications materials, activities, and programs for most-at-risk populations (MARPs) for use by USAID's HIV/AIDS program, Strengthening HIV/AIDS Response Partnerships (SHARP); and 4) social marketing support to strengthen and expand social marketing of family planning commodities which support sustainable, positive behavior change. AED worked in 37 districts, located in seven of the 10 regions of the country.

Health Areas
Infant and young child feeding.

Behavior Change Strategies or Processes
Community mobilization, Behavioral research, Behavior change communication, Policy analysis & advocacy, Monitoring and evaluation, Capacity development and training.

Project Director
Nancy Nachbar

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