Academy for Educational Development

Washington, D.C., October 19, 2004 — The AED Center for Global Health Communication and Marketing (CGHCM) has begun a five-year program in Ghana to improve the health of families, especially women, young children and high-risk groups. The Ghana Sustainable Change Project will use state-of-the-art communications and social marketing initiatives in the public and private sector to target the population’s health care needs.

The project has four main objectives:

• Build capacity within the public and private sector to support effective behavior
  change activities.
• Develop behavior change strategies that use mass media campaigns and support
  community activities that reinforce desired health behaviors.
• Strengthen government officials and policymakers’ ability to advocate for
  programs and activities that create positive behavior change.
• Use social marketing to promote products and services that will support positive
  behavior change.

In the first phases of the project, AED will conduct formative research to better understand health-related behaviors in the areas of child health, reproductive health, family planning and HIV/AIDS care and support. First year promotion activities will focus on malaria prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, and long-term family planning methods.

AED will be working in 28 districts, located in seven of the 10 regions of the country. In each district, messages about healthy behaviors will be advertised in many different locations, such as beauty parlors, pharmacies, and schools.

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