To support the Ethiopian government in reducing preventable maternal and child deaths, Pathfinder International implemented the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Transform: Primary Health Care Activity (2017-2022) in partnership with JSI Training and Research Institute, Abt Associates, Encompass LLC, and the Ethiopian Midwives Association.
The Activity was implemented in Ethiopia’s five agrarian regions—Amhara, Oromia, Sidama, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP), and Tigray—at the primary health care level to provide broader access to quality essential health services while bridging the gap in service utilization by promoting timely health-seeking behaviors. Its social and behavior change (SBC) strategy used multipronged community-level approaches to improve health-seeking behavior (through demand generation interventions); enable the community to improve their own health (through community engagement and mobilization, community capacity strengthening, and creating women leaders in the community); and supporting the community to make informed decisions for social accountability (through community town hall meetings and health post open houses).
This brief presents one of the major SBC interventions implemented by the Activity’s community mobilization efforts.
