Governments adopt strategic behavior change communication: An experience in technical assistance

Background: The USAID funded IFPS Technical Assistance Project, India (2005-12) provided assistance to the ministry of health and family welfare at the national level and state health departments for behavior change communication(BCC).

Strategies: When projects propose BCC strategies and campaigns that are in sync with the health departments' goals, strategies, timelines and available budgets, it ensures buy-in, and increased ownership. Bureaucrats and Public health staff tend to interfere with messaging, imagery, layouts, creative routes of BCC materials- formative research and pretesting rough cuts or draft designs is a good way to contend this is in a subtle, yet concrete way. Many requests for campaign development from the governments have extremely tight deadlines. Instead of agreeing to deliver low- quality and unfinished work, it helps to draw out the realistic timeline, encompassing all possible steps that will be required and show how it can be expedited as well. This ensures critical processes involved in producing good quality campaigns are understood. Timelines need to reflect atleast three rounds of approvals from the respective departments involved, this helps in reducing ‘too many' reviewers. Friendly, understanding, professional relationships with people at all levels; not involving self in ‘office politics' ensures that the individual and organization is respected and trusted, leading to increased openness to newer ideas.

Results: State BCC strategies developed; the State Implementation Plans of three states, for the last three years have BCC chapters; BCC at the core of the national health program, ‘Swasth Bharat' and mass media campaigns on family planning.