The project will focus on developing and testing communication tools related to health system improvement as well as nutrition, HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning and maternal, infant and child health and voluntary male circumcision. CIHO will create communication materials best suited to the needs of the people of Mozambique to help them make healthy behavior choices. Coastal Zambézia Province will serve as a small scale “laboratory” to identify and assess interventions and approaches that address entrenched behaviors and barriers that keep people from seeking out health services. Outcomes from successful programs there will be used to develop evidence-based social and behavior change programs that can be used to improve health across Mozambique.
Another goal of the project is to help the government and other important partners in the country to improve the ability of Mozambicans to effectively implement and evaluate the success of behavior change programs, be they getting more people counseled about, tested and treated for HIV or encouraging people to sleep every night under insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria. CIHO will work to strengthen local capacity through an approach that combines formal training, special educational events and hands-on coaching and mentoring.
