Associate Awards

Associate Awards under C-Change
 

Ethiopia - Malaria
Madagascar – HIV prevention, environment, and adolescent reproductive health
Mekong Delta - Avian and pandemic influenza
Nigeria - HIV and AIDS
PREVENT - Emerging zoonotic diseases

PREVENT – Emerging zoonotic diseases

USAID has awarded AED a five-year multimillion dollar cooperative agreement called PREVENT to develop and implement effective behavior change and communications interventions to reduce the risk of emerging zoonotic diseases.

PREVENT, which is slated to work in four geographic areas--the Gangetic Plain, Amazon River Basin, Congo River Basin, and Southeast Asia-- is part of a larger new USAID program on Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT).

In recent times, 75% of all new human illnesses--such as HIV, SARS, avian influenza, and H1N1--have emerged as a result of the convergence of people, animals and our environment. These diseases have had a devastating public health and economic impact on large populations. The speed with which they can spread across the increasingly interconnected globe puts a premium on identification and launch of rapid containment and response as early as possible when new diseases emerge. Being able to identify these viruses before they move to full-scale human-to-human transmission is the underlying objective of this award.

AED’s cross-cutting activities will identify high-risk practices and groups and formulate the behavior change strategies and interventions to meet the challenges posed by these emerging diseases. This award builds on the work AED has done over the past four years in behavior change and communication related to H5N1 (avian flu) and pandemic H1N1 influenza.

With the threats from avian flu and now pandemic H1N1 influenza, more people now recognize the critical importance that communication can play in helping control disease outbreaks.

AED is joined by several leading partners in emerging infectious diseases and behavior change and communication, including Global Viral Forecasting Incorporated (GVFInc) and G6 Consulting. GVFInc is a leader in conducting infectious disease research and has piloted the first global early warning system to prevent novel pandemics. By coupling innovative surveillance in field sites throughout the world with a consortium of top laboratories, GVFInc is able to characterize the diversity of viruses and other agents as they move from animals into human populations. G6 Consulting is a member of Brodeur Partners' companies founded in 2004 expressly for the purpose of providing senior level consulting, crisis communications, and primary and secondary research that forms and drives communications for global movements.

USAID’s EPT program is a comprehensive and interconnected intervention package that will be implemented through five projects, each requiring specific technical skill sets, but which will work harmoniously together to provide seamless technical assistance and expertise in the field. The other four components of EPT are as follows:

PREDICT: USAID has awarded a five-year cooperative agreement to a constellation of leading experts in wildlife surveillance including University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Trust, The Smithsonian Institute, and Global Viral Forecasting, Inc. to monitor for and increase the local capacity in "geographic hot spots" to identify the emergence of new infectious diseases in high-risk wildlife such as bats, rodents, and non-human primates that could pose a major threat to human health. This award builds on USAID’s current monitoring of wild birds for the H5N1 influenza virus to more broadly address the role played by wildlife in facilitating the emergence and spread of new disease threats.

RESPOND: USAID has awarded a five-year cooperative agreement to a coalition of technical resources including Development Alternatives, Inc., University of Minnesota, Tufts University, Training and Resources Group, and Ecology and Environment, Inc. to strengthen the human capacity of countries to identify and respond to outbreaks of newly emergent diseases in a timely and sustainable manner. This project will focus on the development of outbreak investigation and response training that merges animal and human health dynamics into a comprehensive capacity for disease detection and control. This agreement builds on over 30 years of USAID experience in building long-term capacities in health training through twinning U.S. and local academic institutions.

IDENTIFY: USAID is working with the U.N. World Health Organization (WHO), U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) through existing grants to support the development of laboratory networks and strengthened diagnostic capacities in the "geographic hot spots" for new emergent diseases.

PREPARE: USAID has awarded a three-year cooperative agreement to International Medical Corps to provide technical support for simulations and field tests of national, regional, and local pandemic preparedness plans to ensure that countries have the capacity to implement response plans effectively during pandemic events.

Note: A website link will be established in the future.
 

Mekong Delta – Avian and pandemic influenza

USAID has awarded AED a three-year Associate Award on behavior change communication to help reduce outbreaks of avian and pandemic influenza (API), malaria, and other infectious diseases in Southeast Asia. Awarded by USAID’s Regional Development Mission/Asia (RDM/A) in Bangkok, activities under the award will serve the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries.

Building on AED’s work since 2005 in avian and pandemic influenza, the Mekong Infectious Diseases – Behavior Change and Communication (MID-BCC) Project will include malaria and dengue fever in its technical scope as well as influenza. Its geographical focus includes Cambodia, China, Thailand, as well as Lao PDR and Vietnam where AED is currently working. MID-BCC will be managed from AED’s Bangkok regional office.

AED has the opportunity to apply what it has learned from our BCC work with USAID in the Mekong Subregion over the past 4 years to these continuing public health threats. Across the region, cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever have increased by more than 70 percent since 2003, and the emergence of malaria resistant to artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) along the Thai-Cambodian border also poses a serious threat. So there is urgency to this new work, especially when combined with the current H1N1 pandemic.

AED will collaborate with partners through collaborative and coordination functions (e.g., planning and implementation committees) with key partners such as national and provincial government and community representation, through interactions and MOUs as necessary with international (e.g., FAO, UNICEF) stakeholders; and through subcontracts with implementing partners, which are mostly civic associations. Numerous other local organizations will make their resources and expertise available to the project as needs and opportunities become clearer once implementation is underway.

For more information on AED’s work in this area, see: www.avianflu.aed.org and www.pandemicpreparedness.org.
 

Nigeria - HIV and AIDS

Awarded to AED for Behavior Change Communication for HIV and AIDS in Nigeria, this Leader with Associate Award is intended to fill identified gaps in prevention of sexual transmission of HIV through 1) Enhanced coordination of SBCC for alignment with national prevention priorities; 2) Building the technical capacity of U.S. Government Implementing Partners to implement evidence-based, community-informed SBCC programs for abstinence and fidelity that complements the PEPFAR program portfolio; and 3) Expanding use of mass media channels and the utilization of interpersonal communication initiatives linked to mass media for sexual prevention and social change.

Under this award, C-Change/Nigeria began implementation in May 2009. The intervention focuses on Kogi, Cross River and Abuja, areas experiencing higher than average HIV prevalence rates. The intervention will prepare Master Trainers for coaching and supporting national SBCC implementers in improving evidenced-based SBCC interventions in these focus areas. It will also strengthen national and state coordination of HIV prevention responses in these states and Abuja, supporting tools and processes for improved coordination. For more information, see the Where We Work / Nigeria page.
 

Ethiopia - Malaria

USAID awarded a four-year associate award effective October 2008 to AED. Lead partner C-Change and core partner CARE are providing support to the government of Ethiopia under the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) to empower Ethiopian families to take actions to combat malaria. This includes increasing demand for, and correct and consistent use of, insecticide-treated nets; improving treatment-seeking behaviors; increasing community awareness of the effectiveness of indoor residual spraying (IRS); and increasing community knowledge about malaria diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control. Activities are focused in the Oromiya and Amhara regions.

C-Change and the Health Education Center of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health hosted a successful Message Harmonization Workshop in Spring 2009 for PMI partners, including local Ethiopian and international NGOs, which introduced the concept of small doable actions and development of the Essential Malaria Actions (EMA). The malaria prevention campaign was launched in August 2009 with a Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop, guiding attendees through objectives of the campaign and providing skills-building exercises on how to use the tools when making home visits with community groups. Trainers train the Community Mobilization Committee (CMC) volunteers from participating kebeles (smallest administrative unit in the Ethiopian government). Volunteers use the tools that C-Change has developed. They include the EMA flipchart with basic information on malaria protection and control, the Malaria Protection Scorecards to assist families to track their malaria prevention actions, and Malaria Protection Stickers to recognize families that successfully carry out malaria prevention actions.

At the request of the Ministry of Health, CARE is integrating its “Community Conversations” approach into the malaria prevention/EMA work it is carrying out in East Shoa in Oromiya Region under C-Change. The “Community Conversations” approach addresses the social factors that influence community behaviors. CARE introduced this approach to Ethiopia in 2003 around HIV prevention activities.
 

Madagascar – HIV prevention, environment, and adolescent reproductive health

AED was awarded a four-year associate award under C-Change to carry out a “Cross-cutting and comprehensive behavior change communication program” in Madagascar, effective March 2009. In cooperation with health professionals, communities, and Malagasy families, C-Change worked to strengthen the capacity of local organizations to carry out SBCC programming, to initiate a new generation of health programs that link schools and communities and integrate health with environmental protection, and to assist people to advocate for their own health and that of their community.

C-Change worked with the Ankoay Doré program, launched in partnership with Madagascar’s National AIDS Control Committee (CNLS), to engage young people in a series of participatory life skills activities to build young leaders involved in social issues such as environmental degradation, hygiene, adolescent reproductive health (ARH), and HIV prevention. Activities included involving youth in community development and peer mentoring using a mix of individual and collective activities.

Note: USAID has suspended most programs in Madagascar until further notice.