CCP has been selected as an award nominee for the highly competitive Combating Zika and Future Threats Grand Challenge, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) recently announced. The agency received nearly 900 submissions in response to the Challenge and awarded 21 grants totaling $15 million.
CCP’s award-winning proposal focuses on changing household and community habits around the proper and consistent cleaning of standing water. Working with the consulting firm Catalyst Behavioral Sciences, CCP will develop the Rapid SBCC Habit Optimization Tool (R-SHOT). This easy-to-implement instrument will allow local vector control personnel to tailor behavior change approaches by combining local data with evidence-based behavior change and habit formation principles.
According to Susan Krenn, executive director of CCP, “[a]s we saw during the Ebola crisis, changes in habits and behavior can have substantial impact on the spread of disease. To be successful, behavior change strategies for Zika will need to be tailored to local contexts.”
Using the R-SHOT, CCP seeks to address the following challenges:
- What are the most effective motivational levers to drive the desired change?
- How can we disrupt existing habits or create new vector control habits?
- How should these tactics be tailored/optimized for different settings and audiences?
According to USAID, the innovations developed for the Combating Zika and Future Threats Grand Challenge will also be used in future infectious disease outbreaks.
CCP is developing social and behavior change communication (SBCC) solutions to address the impact of Zika in several countries. The CCP-led Health Communication Collaborative (HC3) conducted a rapid assessment in four Central American countries to identify opportunities to use communication to combat Zika. Most recently, CCP helped launch the Zika Communication Network (ZCN), a one-stop shop for curated essential, evidence-based tools on Zika prevention and preparedness.
